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THIJ 



BODY OF CHRIST: 



SERIES OF ESSAYS 



ON THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF 



FEDERAL REPRESENTATION. 



CORRECTED, ENLARGED AND CONC T.UDiiDj F30M THE EVAK^ 
GELICAL RECORD A^D WES i ERN REVIEW. 



'* For the edifying of the Body of QkHH,^* EpB: iy. 12, 



EDITED BY JAMES M ♦CHORD. 

LEXINGTON- : KY, ^ 
FUBLISHED BY THOM v3 T, SKILLMAN, 

lau. 



7/ 



PREFACE. 

THE person who adventures to issue a per- 
formance of his own into the world, prefaced 
with a multitude of reasons why he did not pro- 
duce a better, is doubtless compelled to appear 
before the public in very awkward guise. Yet 
tb the rueful necessity of making some such 
apology for the more obvious defects to be 
found in the following pages, the author, and 
editor, finds himself reduced. Nearly the one 
half of the present work appeared during the 
course of the last year in " the Evangelical 
Record and Western Review.'' At the 
conmiencement oi itis .republication in the pre- 
sent form^ the publisVi^r contemplated nothing 
more than merely to reprint the part which had 
then appeared; as the agitations of the West on 
the question of communion had given to those 
numbers a momentary importance, and pro- 
mised to promote a pretty extensive circulation 
of them. In this transaction the Editor did not 
intend to concern himself, further than in the cor- 
rection of several egregious errors ci the press, 



tvhich had happened in the first imnression, foi 
want of an atlcndmce which he tbuad it impos- 
sible to give. Hence he refused to take upon 
himself the labour of altering several sentences 
and allusions which were sintHblc ttiOugh to the 
form in which the work ai hrtit npeared, and 
pot at all objectionable in a n \ (Uilion, when 
issued merely under the character of an ex- 
perpt ; but which make a very awkward figure 
jn a volume of the description now issued to the 
world. It was the intention of the editor to have 
continued these essays under a different form 
^nd title, in another work about which he is con^^ 
ferncd. But as the practicability of this plan 
^oon biecame questionable, it was no hard task 
for him to submit to the solicitations of his pub- 
Jisher, for furnishing the residue of '* the body 
pf Christ," under the.§h^^e and circumstances 
ifi which it now appeals/'' 

This has been done at very irregular and 
sometimes very long intervals. The reader of 
taste may therefore.be sometimes Jiocked, but 
cannot be very much surprised, to find that in 
whole numbers, generally written upon the spur 
of the moment, and just when it suited the com^ 
positor to call for more,-^ written too, amidst a 
variety of avocations and distractions, which per- 



mitted no more leisurely and careful compo- 
sure, — written also, for the most part, at a siiigle 
sitting, and hurried to the press without so much 
as a single reperusal :-^the reader will hardly be 
surprised to find that such a work is not charac- 
terized by that perspicuity of thought, or con- 
ducted witli that regard to unity of plan, which 
he feels entitled to demand, in an age of fine 
writing and of vigorous thought. 

We are perfectly sensible that unless the sim- 
ple detail already given can be admitted, under 
the circumstances of the case, as a sufiicient 
apology for this hazardous attempt, the attempt 
itself may be justly regarded as without a plea 
for mercy, whatever might be the style of execu- 
tion as respects the work. But if the circum^ 
stances by which he was pushed into the under- 
taking, required that it should be completed at 
any hazard ; then the editor feels that he has a 
claim to all the indulgence to which his very un- 
favourable and uncontrolable circumstances 
would give any one a right ; and he is persuaded 
that it will be deemed neither an improper nor 
an unnecessary step thus explicitly to state that 

claim. 

With respect to the vieu^ and principles ad- 
vocated in the following pages, he has aoihing 
a2 



w?J^ 



of the same kiud to oficr- Leisurc might have 
enabled him to state them much better ; it would 
not have contributed to his stating of them dif- 
ferently. Some of them will be new to very 
many of his readers, others of them, for ought 
that he has seen or heard to the contrar)^^ may 
appear quite new in themselves. It is hoped, 
however, and expected, that none of them will 
be found novel, when brought to the " touch- 
stone" of all christian doctrine, and r>onc of them 
uninteresting to the lover of the Saviour^s cause. 
Upon the subjects comprehended in the first two 
deductions, the times certainly demand that 
something should be S4id. How far this little 
effort may go to supply that need, it is n€)t for 
us to take upon ourselves to guess. But if it 
shall tend in any measure to establish the wa- 
vering and determine the irresolute; if it should 
even be a means of exciting others to a mc^ 
luminous and toboured and successful exposi- 
tion of these great christian truths i certainly the 
editor will have no solid cause to regret that he 
inadvertently exposed a youthful name to be 
niped by frigid criticism, while it is his blessed- 
ness to be favoured with the more valuable ac- 
quisition of an assurance that he has not ** ran 
in vain, neither laboured in v»io#" 



7 

It would be improper to commit this little ef- 
fusion to the press, without a distinct acknow- 
ledgment of the editor's obligations to a valua- 
ble coadjutor, by whom he has been furnished 
with the well written essay which constitutes 
the sixtn number of the present volume; as also 
to the intelligence and industry of a correspon- 
dent in a neighbouring state, by whom he has 
been favoured with some of the most valuable 
authorities contained in the appendix ; and in- 
deed, with some hints of very considerable im- 
portance which are engrossed in the body of thO"; 
work. 



CONTENTS. 

No. 1. 
Organization of the plan of redenr^ption . 13 

No. II. 

Developement and defence of the imputative 
principle, in its application to that plan 21 

A summary view of some of the n\ain prin- 
ciples involved in every federal compact 33 

No. III. 

The Holy Spirit is the bond which unites 

with the system headed by the saviour 37 
Purposes to be effected by this constitutiow 47 

No. IV. 

Results. 

Application of the doctrine of federal repre- 
sentation to the solution of the questions 
which relate to the grounds and extent of 
Christian communion ... 51 

Confirmations of the deduction, drawn from 
the concessions of adversaries . 5& 

Scriptural testimony in bchail of the same 
conclusion . . . . 59 

The ev' liice "o be deduced from the deci.ir- 
cd tuus of the saciaments • . 6F 



10 

A great difficulty considered : — whether other 
denominations are to be regarded as Ciiris- 
tian . r . , . . 7^ 

Opinions and practice of the Westminster 
assembly and Wes^^minster age, in relation 
to communion . • . . 80 

No. V, 

The subject continued. 

Answers to objections drawn from the inex- 
pediency of occasional communion 100 

Answers to objections drawn from the scrip 
tures , . . . .1*24 

Answers to objections drawn from a pro- 
fessed adherence to a Confession of Faith 134 

No. VI; 

Continuation of the subject. 

Som*" additional passages of scripture con- 
sidered . * . . 135 

No. VII. 
The subject concluded. 

The legitimate grounds and proper objects 

of exclusion from the sacraments . 151 

Considerations on schism . . 159 

No. VIII 
Results continued : — a second deduction. 
Appiication of the principles of ledeiMJ n p- 
resentation to the Questions concerning the 



r" 



extent of the Redeemers purchase, and of 
the gospel offer • ^ . 166 

Origm of the difficulty imputed to this sub- 
jeer— detec in of an error common to all 
part.es . . . . 169 

Preliminary considerations: — Ist position: 
men must be in Clirist before they can be 
represented by him ... J 73 

No. IX. 

The subject continued. 

A second position illustrated :— the capacities 
of the system headed by the saviour, are 
illimitable in themselves ; but its actual 
operation terminable at will . 182 

A third posiiion demonstrated : — every fede- 
ral system is necessarily complete in every 
stage of its developement . • 188 

No. X. 

The subject concluded. 
Application of the preceding discussions to 

tilt: questions in hand . . , 151 

Difficuhies and inconsistencies insenarablr 

trom the views commonly entertamed 205 

No. XI. 

Continuation of Results. 
Application of the doctrine of federal reprc« 
st ntation to the solution of the inquiry, 
* -vhat things are indispensable to living 
Christianity?' . , ^ 23Q 



La. 



12 

No. XII. 

Results concluded. 
Duties of all Christians with respect to the 

church general . . . 240 
Appendix. 
Additional authorities on the question of 
comuiunion .... 

I Quotations from Vines . . . 255 

Quotations from Durham . . 260 

Quotation from archbishop Wake . 263 

In turning over the pages of this Avork in a very- 
hasty manner, for the purpose of making out the fore- 
going table, the Editor regrets to say that he has 
perceived a considerable number of typographical 
errors,— -a much greater number indeed than he could 
by any means have anticipated. In is expected, how- 
ever, that there is nct.iing of the kind of which the 
correction may not be sufficiently obvious to relieve 
every reader from the smallest measure of embar- 
rassment. The residence of the Editor at some <,iis- 
tance cut of town, and his consequent inabiiity to spare 
more time than could be devoted to a single^ and that 
I often a hasty^ though careful perusal of every sneet, 
is the only apology that can be offered to his readers. 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

NO. I. 

^' Ye are the Body of Christ ^nyid members in particular J^* 

1 Cor. 12. 27. 

it is a remarkable Fact that the plan of redemp- 
tion, so au[;ust in all its parts, and perfectly with- 
out parallel m its design, introduces no new prin- 
ciples into God's government of this ivoi:ii^ but 
is bottomed, e^nd fairly carried through, upon 
such as have their foundation laid deep a^-d large 
in the original constitution of things, and rntjst 
of. which mankind, in ail c»ther matters, admit 
without scruple; while upon all of them, whether 
they do or do not perceive it, they are pructlsing 
every day. 

We are aware that the world, and even a gi eat 
proportion of the christian church, do not think 
so. Oil the contrary, men speak and feel as if 
• they had got into quite another region, when their 
attention is drawn to 'Hhe things of the Spirit;'* 
and they set out with the expectation of new 
principles, new plans, new modes of doing things, 
to all which, in all other matters, the universe is 
perfectly a stranger. Just as if the God of Grace 
were not the God of Nature too! 

And yet it seems almost surprising how such 
a notion could obtain for an hour in the mind of 
a man but very liuie acquainted witti his Bible. 

B 



14 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

For that book perpetually appeals to things a- 
round us for the illustration of its most abbtrusc 
principles; and hardly a page of it is any wliere 
to be met with, in which analogies are not brought 
into view, that might serve to silence the most 
captious objector. The truth is, there is an ama- 
zing simplicity in the constitutions of the Divin- 
ity. The general principles of his government 
are few, but of most exteijsive application. And 
it is this flict, the application of the same general 
principle to a great variety of objects differing in 
essence, in constitution, in circumstance, in de- 
gree, that lays the foundation for every thing we 
,call analogy among the works of God. Whence 
it comes to pass that no man, whether infidel or 
eiTorist, may captiously object to the most rigid 
application of any scriptural principle, without, 
at the same time, setting himself in array against 
many practical maxims and plain matters of fact, 
to be found among men and things around him, 
by which the most obnoxious tenets of the faith- 
ful are paralleled, illustrated, established. 

This fliCt, important at all times for the defence 
and illustration of evangelical truth, is doubly 
valuable in its application to tliose principles 
which lie at the bottom of the christian scheme, 
and form at once the greatest mysteries, arid the 
most important springs of practical religion. 

These remarks will be seen to apply in their 
full force to the invaluable truth suggested by 
the Apostle in that context of ^vhich our motto 
forms so small, but so significant a part. The 
dt^tHne of the ^'mystical uiiidri" has bten, innH 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 15 

ages, precious to those who knew the truth as it is 
in Jesus. It has been retained and prized in pla- 
ces and in periods in which most of its kindred 
and consequential truths have been impaired and 
lost. Nor is it the smallest proof of its important 
bearings on the general scheme of things, 
that the man of reason and the man of works 
hav'c uniformly set themselves against it. In fact, 
there is no one christian principle that occupies 
a more distinguished station in the scale of chris- 
tian truth; none bears so extensively, none more 
fully on the relations and feelings of a christian 
man. 

In calling the attention of our readers to a sub- 
ject in which every one of them has such inter- 
ests embarked, we wish it, however, to be dis- 
tinctly understood that ihe attemn^ \^ ka^arded 
for the sake of introducing several obvious and 
important practical results, which (such, alas, are 
the times!) men who allow and value the doc- 
trine, are too much disposed to overlook; rather 
than from a confidence of rescuing a most pon- 
derous and precious truth from the captious ob- 
jections of rational theologians, and the ^'opposi- 
tions of science y FALSELY so called:"* or yet 
from a hope of setting in a clearer light dian has 
been done an hundred times by others, a subject 
of acknowledged difficulty, because of magnitude 
.00 vast for human intellect to wield. 

The idea of the whole church of Christ being 
considered, not merely in law, but really in point 
of fact, one great moral, or, if you will, spiritual 
individual, must be perfectly familiar totheread^ 



>.<' 



16 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

er of the scriptures. For while they unceasingh" 
present it as a motive to the active discharge 
of dut\% and a ground of comfort amidst difficul- 
ties and discouragements, they illustrate the con- 
nexion by a fgreat variety of objects familiar to 
mankind. Jesus Christ is represented as the 
bridegroom, and the church catholic as the bride, 
the lamb's wife; and this too as grounded upon 
that original constitution, that a man shall leave 
his father and mother, and cleave unto liis wife, 
and the twain shall become one flesh. A con- 
stitution the full force of which was felt by our 
first father, when, on seeing Eve, he exclaimed, 
*^ihis is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my 
flesh." Again: the connection is pointed out by 
our Lord, under the similitude of a vine and its 
branches;^ and by the Apostle Paul under that 
of the trunk of an olive tree and branches engraft- 
ed on it.f In one instance it is compared by 
our Lord to the union which subsists among the 
persons of the blessed Godhead. J Not only for 
his disciples, but for every one else who should 
believe upon him through their word, he prays 
*'that they all may be one, as thou Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in 
us." And surely, when it is recollected that this 
v/as not an illustration given to his disciples, but 
an act of supplication to his God and Father, who 
stood in no need of any elucidation on the sub- 
ject, no professed believer in the scriptures who 
admits that there is a r^al and necessary union 

*Jolin XV tlvoni. XI. 15 — ?5^ 

fJot-i ^^rii. 5O5 51. 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 17 

between the Father ^nd the Son — who is not in 
fact an Arian or Socinian — none such, we say, 
can avoid concluding that the relation subsisting 
between the head of the church and all the in- 
dividual members, is something much more real 
and intimate than a simple relationship created 
by law. If Jesus Christ be in reality Divine, if 
"the Lord our God is one Lord,"* not in figure, 
but in fact, so too are the members of the bles- 
€d head '^members of his body, and of his flesh, 
and of his bones,"t really^ immutably, eternally. 

But this constitution of the church of God is 
much the most frequently , and perhaps the most 
clearly, pointed out under the emblem of a hu- 
man body. A striking example of this kind is 
afforded us in 1 Cor. vi. 15 — 17. where the A- 
postle dissuades christians from the sin of un- 
cleanness, by adverting to this great principle of 
the "mystical union, ^^ in connexion with that 
other constitution just mentioned, viz. that "the 
twain shall become one flesh.'* This, argues our 
Appstle, being the declared constitution of God, 
what do you, a christian man, by debasing your- 
self by a connexion of this kind, but likewise 
debase Christ Jesus? You are a member of 
Christ Jesus, for "be that is joined to the Lord 
is one spirit:" and by this transaction you like- 
wise make your members the members of an 
harlot, thus bringing, in some sort, the Lord him- 
self into connexion with the infamously lewd. 

Another, and if possible still more striking ex- 
ample, we have in the passage to which our read- 

* Deut- vi, 4. t Ephes. v. 30. 

B 2 



1$ THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

ers are directe^l at the head of o^ essay. He 
had been spealkhig of the vast variety of gifts 
imparted by the Holy Ghost to different mem- 
bers of the church of Corinth; and tells them that 
the Holy Ghost in ^'dividing to every man sever- 
ally as he will,'' ^id not intend merely to put 
distinguished honor upon the selected individual, 
but through his means to benefit the whole. And 
in order to suppress that spirit of envy and dis- 
content at the superior endowments of others, to 
which they who are only perfected in part are 
liable as well as other men, he points out the 
folly and unreasonableness of such a disposition, 
by comparing their relative situation with that 
species of connexion and dependency which 
subsists among the members of the human frame. 
^*The body,'' he insists, *'is not one member but 
many.^^ And yet those many members, so va- 
riously gifted, are not designed to act, neither in 
fact can possibly act^ for their own advantage 
exclusively, but for the benefit of that whole body 
of which they severally form so inconsiderable a 
part. If the hands, or feet, or eye, or ear, exe- 
cute their appropriate functions, they do so for 
the service of the whole; and if any one of them 
is subjected to any inconvenience, that inconve- 
nience equally affects the whole. Now, says the 
Apostle, let us suppose any one of these mem- 
bers discontented with this arrangement, and that 
it is possible it should be gratified with get- 
ling into the station and office of a more distin- 
guished member: what would be the consequence.^ 
Why the whole body must suffer by the change. 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 1^ 

and that very member with the rest. ^'If tlie 
whole body were an eye, where M^erc the hearing? 
and if the whole were hearing, where were the 
smelling?" — "If they wercall one member, where 
were the body." 

We beg our readers to advert again to the 
drift of the Apostle. It is to shew that no man 
should be dissatisfied with his particular allot- 
ment in the church of God. And having illus- 
trated his position at large by this diversity of 
disposition and endowments in the members of 
the human frame, and by the harm that all the 
parts must sustain by altering the condition of 
any one, he fastens down his conclusions by this 
sweeping principle, that as are the several mem- 
bers of the human frame^ to the xvhole of that 
frame ^ considered as ONE BODY, so are all the 
mdividual members of the church of Christ, to 
the whole of that church of which he is to be 
considered as the Head. Thus, he had said, is 
it, thus must it be^ with the body and its mem- 
hers: ^^uow ye are the body of Christy and mem- 
bers in particular y 

If it be not then plainly an assumption of our 
Apostle, that all the individual believers in the 
world are but parts or members of one great spi- 
ritual system, and if this be not the very basis 
of his reasoning, we defy the whole world to point 
out any hght contained in his illustration, or any 
conclusion to which his argument leads. Nay, 
it is not a bare assumption, it is a fact positively 
asserted at the commencement of his reasonings on 
this subject; "for as the body is one, and hathraany 



20 THE BODY OF CHRIST, 

members, and ail the members of that one body, 
being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For 
by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, 
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
bond or free." (verses 12, 13,) 

But it were useless to multiply instances upoa 
this subject. Any person desirous of pursuing 
them further, may consult with advantage chapt* 
X. 27. of this epistle. Ephes. i. 22, 23, ii. 16. 
iv. 1 — 16. And Romans vi. vii. viii. through* 
out. 

Upon the whole, then, it clearly appears, that 
while every believer retains his individual stand- 
ing, and his separate powers, and personal dis- 
tinctions, even as do, according to their nature^ 
the several members of the human body, and the 
trunk, the branches, tw^igs, and foliage of a tree; 
yet, as these various objects in nature are never- 
theless combined into their appropriate systems, 
and have being, feeling, and importance, only as 
parts of a still greater whole; — nay, as the Father 
is distinct from the Son, and the Son from the 
Holy Spirit, and yet Father, Son and Spirit, but 
the one Jehovah: so, also, believers in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, ^^grow up into him in all things 
which is the head;'' form really and truly but 
one great body vivified and actuated by the Holy 
Spirit, even as the human soul pervades and ac* 
tuates the members of the body; and derive from 
this source all their importance, all their feeling,, 
all their interest, nay, their very being, considered 
as living members of the living head. Hence, 
Tifcewise^ it will necessarily follow that it is to no 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 21 

man, considered in his individual capacity, but 
solely a^ a part of ''the body of Christ," that any 
of the dispensations of God arc measured not. 
And, also, that upon this connexion, as founded 
in fact, ail those relations are predicated which 
are said to exist in law, between the Redeemer 
and his people* 



NO. II. 

It has been singularly the lot of scriptural prin- 
eiples to meet with opposition from mankind, up- 
on the alleged ground of their injustice, imprac- 
ticability, absurdity; Avhile at the ver}^ same mo- 
ment the maxims and positions thus roughly 
handled when brought in aid of a purpose to save 
sinners, are acknowledged, are practised upon by 
men, arc day by day verified in the providence 
of God; and onlv differ from the other hated and 
calumniated application of them in those mere 
circumstances of measure and form, which their 
adaptation to a variety of objects must necessa- 
rily impose. The fact is, that men who '^have 
not submitted themselves to the righteousness of 
God" iear the consequence of ^uch concessions. 
They feel that they war against their security — 
against their peace; and therefore agahist them 
they wage determined warfare. Hence it be- 
comes necessary not only to illustrate, but also 
to defend the truths of God. 



22 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

The fact, that in Christ Jesus all true believers 
''form really and truly but one great body^ vivified 
and actuated by the Holy Spirit, even as the hu- 
man soul pervades and actuates the members of 
the body," has, wt think, been shewn with suf- 
ficient clearness from the scriptures. And if we 
are to maintain a conflict on this subject, the wea- 
pons of the adversary must be drawn from an ar- 
mory ^ery difterent from the w^ord of God. We 
iimst expect to hear that the thing is impractica- 
ble, is absurd: rmd therefore, on this great question 
which enters into the vitals of christian hope, our 
appeal shall not be confined ''to the law and to 
the testimony." Men, we have hinted, are daily 
acting upon the principle of great moral associa- 
tions; and God also, in a variety of cases, unde- 
niably proceeds with men upon this footing- 

Let it, however, be recollected that when we 
speak of the church of Christ as forming but one 
body J of which individual believers are "mem- 
bers in particular," it by no means follows tliat 
any individual is so merged in the general sys- 
tem, as to lose his personal distinctions, powers, 
or feelings. This, it has already been remarked, 
is not in any shape or in any case the consequence 
of moral associations. In fact it is not the case 
in those natural objects to which the scriptures 
refer for illustration. An arm or an eye is not 
deprived of the appropriate powers, feelings, dis- 
tinctions, belonging to it as a member, because 
constituting only a small part of the system: 
though it is at the same time obvious that sepa- 
rated from that system, its distinctions, functions, 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 23 

and very being mast cease. Just such is the 
predicament of all die associations of which we 
speak. A man loses his individuality only in the 
sense and to the extent in which his interests be- 
come merged in a more extensive system. Or 
rather, he exchanges personal standing, influence, 
interests, &:c. for an adequate concern in the for- 
tunes of the vvhole. According to die nature 
and extent of the objects had in view by the as- 
sociation then, and in proportion to the degree 
and kind of his connexion Vv^ith the same, not a 
jot further, does a man cease to be regarded and 
affected in liis individual capacity. 

Thus much being premised, we say that the 
w orld is full of these large bodies, each of which 
embraces a variety of men. What are ail your 
corporate bodies — your cities, banks, public sem- 
inaries, privileged societies, nay, even nations, but 
moral individuals on a smaller scale? smaller, we 
mean, than ''die body of Christ." No man, by 
liis connexion with any of these, loses his person- 
ality. But in proportion to the kind and degree, 
of that connexion, he ceases to be regarded or 
affected as an individual, and must submit to the 
regulations and destinies imposed upon die mass. 
You vest, for instance, a portion of your proper- 
ty ill bank stock. Then it is no longer yours* 
The whole association have an interest in it, and 
you in the vv^hole of theirs. Your ^oice, as an 
individual, is not heard with regard to the man- 
agement or disposal of it. The resolve of the 
directors determines every thing: and not only of 
directors chosen in part by yourself, or your own 



24 THii BODY OF CHRIST. 

resolve as one of them; but you must abide by 
the arrangements made, and contracts entered in- 
to, an hundred years before you were born. You 
profit by the good conduct of every officer be- 
lon"-ing to the institution, and the misconduct of 
any one of them is your loss. Here, however, 
only a part, perhaps a very small part, of your 
prooerty is put from under your personal con- 
trol; and what is thus circumstanced may not 
Iiave been in consequence of your ancestors' pro- 
cedure, but of your individual act. Your entire 
i>rofits by no means result from the good man- 
agement' of this; nor are you reduced to poverty 
should the institution fail. 

Take then another instance. It is not by your 
own consent that vou become a member of a na- 
tion. You are born in that capacity. It was 
the deed of your Micrs. And in the transactions 
of your government with the other nations of tne 
earth, not only your property but your personis 
deeply ir teresied. By that government your lot 
and standing are determined without your being 
consulted, or in despite of your dissent. You 
may indeed expatriate yourselt by emigration; 
but this will not mend the matter; for ol what, 
ever nation you become a member, and what- 
ever be Its form of government, that government 
will act for you. How then are you regarded by 
the other nations of the world? Doubtless as a 
component part of a mighty whole. In respec 
tine the flag of your private vessel they respect 
vournation's flag; or in making prize of your 
merchandize they wound tlK nation's interests. 



THE BODY OF CHRlb 1 &S 

In a state of warfare the nation pleads the public 
act in reference to eveiy individual numbered a- 
mong her enemies; and in seizing your proper- 
ty, laying waste your patrimony, or immuring 
your person, she only treats you as part of a more 
extended whole. She would deride your plea of 
being only an individual that had no kind of a- 
gency in bringing on a state of v/arfare, and felt 
no kind of enmity against herself. 

The reader may diversify and carry much fur- 
ther these illustrations at pleasure. He cannot 
but see that almost all the transactions of men 
proceed upon the principle; and that without the 
introduction of it as a practical maxim, neither 
families nor corporate bodies nor nations could 
possibly get along. Thus then do men think, 
thus do they speak, in relation to their transac- 
tions with one another. And that this is no mere 
arbitrary principle, but one founded upon the 
very nature of man, and resulting necessarily 
from the general state of things, is evident from 
this strong fact, that the ruler of the universe a- 
dopts it as a maxim of his government and ac- 
tually deals with men upon this very footing. 
Few men are such enemies to the doctriifc of 
God's providence, as to deny that national cal^rtli- 
tics are inflicted by him, and that too under the 
character of national judgments. Here then, of 
course, the evil is a common one. Th^y whd* 
had no hand in the provocatives that call down 
vengeance, partake equally with the most guilty 
— ^the helpless female with the man of blood— ^ 
the little prattler with its hapless parent.i^A3l 



26 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

—all are buried together, amid the ruins of the 
earthquake, or fall before the exterminating sword, 
or pine^Deneath the grasp of 

**The meagre fiend, that from his shrivelled lips 
*'Blows pestilence." 

Tliis, then, is the punishment of a nation^ s sin. 
It is the expiation of a nation^s guilt; and they 
who are made to suffer, suffer but as parts of an 
offending whole. For their personal atrocities, 
men will be called to a separate and personal ac- 
count. 

It will require a very limited acquaintance 
with the Scriptures, to enable any of our readers 
to turn up to multitudes of passages which sane- 
tion, and even avow, the principle before us. The 
deluge is a prominent example. All flesh had 
corrupted their way; the earth was filled with vio- 
lence: And when the desolations came, they 
swept away the infant and the suckling. These 
could in no degree be guilty of the atrocities 
which laid the foundation for that dire calamity. 
They formed, however, a part of the world, and 
upon a world of wickedness the judgment was 
executed. It is likewise worthy of remark that 
of the eight persons who escaped the calamity, 
we have no evidence that the greater part were 
pious. But the application of the principle which 
desolated the world brought safety to them. 
They were but one family; a moral individual 
therefore on a smaller scale: and the head of the 
family being righteous, some of the members 
probably also righteous, this was a sufficient pro^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 27 

tection from a family judgment, and a sufficient 
ground for the extension of deliverance to every 
member of the same. 

Let us hear, however, God's positive declara- 
tions on this subject. Upon what principle, 
think you, does he visit the iniquity of the fathers 
upon the children unto the third and fourth gen- 
eration of them that hate him?^ Doubtless it 
must be that the domestic circle constitutes re- 
ally but one moral whole. 

Upon what principle but this was the posses- 
sion of Canaan withholden from Abraham and 
his posterity for above four hundred and fifty 
years, until the iniquity of the Amorites should be 
Jhll'?^ Doubtless the succession of individuals 
did not destroy the identity of the nation; and 
when that nation should have grown old in wick- 
edness, when they who were afterwards to live in 
the days of Joshua should Yv^vt filled up the mea- 
sure of their father s^% and the national ^\ii\X had 
reached its utmost limit; then, upon that last gen- 
eration, should fall the nation'^ s punishment. Thez/ 
must be accounted with for all. And thus it 
actually did fall out. We are aware that persons 
who do not deny the application of the principle 
; in these instances, may tell us that the constitu- 
tion under which they occurred is now abroga- 
ted; and in proof of their assertion, allege that 
declaration of God himself: *'Ye shall not have 
occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel;'' 
viz. ''the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the 

' Exod. XX. 5. t Gen, xv. 1 6. \ Matth. xxiii. 32, 



28 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

childrens teeth are set on edge."^ Without at- 
tempting to determine what was the precise ob- 
ject of this declaration, it is sufficient that we 
prove that no such dereliction of the principle in 
question can possibly be involved in it. If that 
were the meaning of the passage, then how could 
our Lord be so inconsistent as to tell the Jews 
that of the generation v/hich he addressed should 
be required 'Hhe blood of all the prophets which 
was shed from the foundation of the world; from 
the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zecharias, 
who perished between the temple and the altar?" 
*'Verily," he adds, **verily I say unto you, it shall 
be required of this generation. "f Hovv^ fearfully 
this denunciation was accomplished, the whole 
vyorld knov/s. And Jesus Christ being judge — - 
the author of the dispensation being admitted to 
interpret it, no man may deny that this was the 
punishment of a hardened and corrupted cliurch's 
defections, in which the account was brought up 
from the very date of her existence. It took its 
sweep from the commencement to the consum- 
ination of the old ceconomy. 

The father's eating sour grapes no more to set 
the childrens teeth on edge, a proof that God has 
done away the great principle of moral associa- 
tions! How then cried the souls which John 
saw under the altar, of them who had been '^slain 
for the word of God, and for the testimony which 
tliey held" — '4iow long, O Lord, holy and true, 
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood upon 

*'E2ek. xviii. t Luke xi. 49 — 5V. 



THE BOCY or CHRIST. 29 

*em that d.ell on .he -*?" ^"tl 

Utile season, """',*•"' .H"?" ful611ed?"* Let 
killed aa tl«y .";^«jSSv =f S ^ans^^^^^ 
"">■ °"? 'Mrm M ed SS- still unfolding, in the 
^.o^f of"S? td he will see a ve^g-« 

E?d by Pagan ^J-^^^^l^t^J^t^l 
ter a lapse of many «"»""■ T™ i.^ok at this 

*r^f.o-cSeXann;v4°*e»b.olito 

''"Thk mincil>le whieh deals out what men AviU 
no'dWw.2«to^n*^^^^^ 

^""'>^i:*^^:r rXStwasthejudg. 

rStr£S:«3bi: 

Tfa^llJefSsTrntSlJ^ 
succession of mdividuals in punishing a people s 
sS Wberefore did Judah lie desolate, and her 
"mple irTruins for the space of seventy years,to 
*Rev. vi. 9 — ^^• 



c2 

\ 



30 THE BODY OF CHRIST, 

infidelitv of fL u ? ^"^ lukewarmness and 

: distinct y Undemnnrl. K I M , • ' " '' "^'^ ^^ 

»; Drorf? ^ ""aerstoQd; but will it invalidate the 
ilh k elf . P.^^^'-^c^ed and increased defect on 

'pccordms: to its measnr,^ fi.«, ' i leruore^ 

iW,,,^!„-' ,'^'- T'°"Sh« >ntoaproof,oreven 
4 f"*'™'P"°«' "« Ae tllii,g does, iot wke pS 



THE lioDi or CHllisr. 



as a punishment at all! We admit that the re- 
moval of the gospel from an after i!^•e, prodices 
Ro mconvenience to the one in whicK and on ac 
count of whose sin, the purpose may have been 
denounce(^no inconvenience, ue mean, of the 
^md which IS siud to constitute the punishment. 
±Jut, then, just so much the stronger is the proof 
Gf our position; for if God denounce against a 
church the removal of his gospel, as a punish- 
r'/VHrl ^^'""^^'^t ^' «*^"se of it, and vet does 
not tuUil his denunciation till long after the per 
sons bringing do^vn the judgment have gone the 
W of all the earth; then most clearly he consi- 
ders the successors obligated to the punishment: 
«•, m other words, regards that church as one 
throughout her generations. 

Men may cavil and discriminate and explain 

avv-ay as they please; but, if they will do so, they 

do It at their perih The decision of God upoii 

the point is lull and clear throughout the volume 

or the bcnpuires; and all attempts to soften or 

e..plum away, will be found a most hazardous 

Kickmgagainst the pricks." All that objecdng 

the impenitence of churches, the guilt of nations, 

-ancl the uement of every age, amounts to nothing. 

r.very generation is not so visited. God bears 

long, vv^;rns. long, threatens long, actually makes 

fne very i.npfitutence a part of the nation^s pun- 

Khnient; and tlivtm, as he tells us, visits upon one 

-ce of men the national transgressions of the 

vnoie. Often, Tn fact, lets the judgment fall 

nost heavily upon the less guilty generation, and 

moiig them on.thi - niost hJameless individuals; ' 



04 THE BODY OF CHRIST 

thereby c^\ncws:, when he lops off the sound^ 
Sfand heieS parts of a great system, tha 

5 bd^gnatinn must be highly wrought ag.mst 

^Me'opelS'the length of the preceding c^ 
cussion vviU not lead our readers to forge the 
^nli on which it is intended to bear, fhey can- 
^ hn see u'at l>oth God and man recognise 
not but s^^Jf^ '^^.^^^-.ple of moral associations, 

og;^er il one great system, and («f the term be 
'dmis^ible) identified with one anothci. We 
1 den hat the doctrine we have advanced, 
-eKh4"; ^'the body of Christ," is by no means 
noCel the orinciple upon which it is predicated 
Tbv rmeans peculiar to t^e cl.risti.. s^^^^^^^^ 
It is in fact, the common prmc pie ot all extcn 
i^' operation, among men-the solepTmcipe 
pon vvhich nations a?t in their intercourse with 
X another, and upon which the governor of he 
nations can act. in the greater P^opomon of ^^^ 
fisnensations towards men. If so, men talk .v th- 
S book^vta they heap contempt upon this 
^vs?rv of our holy "religion, and hoot at the un- 
S£sophk:al absurdities of those/'who turn the. 
P ?^ .,,.«-,rV down." There are, we admit, fea- 
Tres b't^ chrircV. catholic peculiar to itself. 
Ind to which no kmd of resemblance can be tra- 
ced Tn any other combination known among men. 
Sit so has every such association its own peculi. 
Sfe all of which arise out of.its ^daj^t^^- ^ 
the niticular object had m view. Iherc are 
tuSssmany tiings commcaUo boroughs and 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 33 

cities which have no resemblance in a bank; and 
yet both are corporate bodies. And if the church 
of Christ be found to embosom more or stronger 
peculiarities than any other large system, it is a 
satisfactory account of this difference to remark 
that its object is greater, the extent of its bearings 
greater, and especially that the fact of its embra- 
cing the Son of God himself as a part ol the sys- 
tem, gives a susceptibility of features which must 
necessarily be unknown to every combination of 
which the soul is not tlie all-important part, and 
Jehovah himself avowedly and formally the head. 
In this case all the resources of the Son of God 
are brought to tear upon the object, and give a 
character to the plan; in every other case the fea- 
tures of the plan will be found to be only such as 
the resources of men can admit. 

Our business, however, is not to note the dis- 
tinctive marks of various moral systems. It is 
all that we desire, if our readers are au'are of the 
fallacy of objecting these differences and peculi- 
arities with a view to confound the whole scheme. 
But as these analogies may be found very help- 
ful to illustrate as well as defend 'Hhe body of 
Christ," we cannot avoid pointing them to some 
of those principles which are common to the wliole 
class of moral associations. It is worthy of re- 
membrance that in ever\' such combination of 
men the great mass is subject to the control of 
a head, which itself occupies not an individual 
but an official standing, and has its individual con- 
cerns just as completely merged as any private 
member. Thus the government is a nation's head: 



34 THE BODY OF CHRIST^ 

the corporation appears for the city: the board of 
directors for a bank: of trustees for a public sem- 
inary: tiie husband for a family: and the Lord 
Jesus Christ for "the Church which he purcha- 
sed with his ow^n blood.'' Whatever is by any 
of these officially transacted, is considered as hav- 
ing been done by the whole body; upon that body 
the procedure takes effect; and to it the conse- 
quences are imputed. 

Again. It is proper to remark that the con- 
stant flux of individuals never affects the stand- 
ing of the body^ nor in any wise makes void the 
procedure of its head. Let whosoever will buy 
or sell bank stock, the measures of the directors 
make a steady progress, and the man who pos- 
sesses a share for the moment is the one who is 
affected. Let the individuals in a nation be shift- 
ing eVery moment, let births and deaths take 
place by thousands in a day, the operations of the 
body are not thereby hindered, the national ac- 
countability is not in the least impaired, for the 
nation never changes. That is to say, under ev- 
ery possible change of circumstance the imputa- 
tive principle applies. Add to this another im- 
portant view: that whatever be the actual limita- 
tion as to the number of individuals comprised 
in anv association, or whatever be the intention 
of the head of the association relative to such li- 
mitation, the system itself is capable of embra- 
cing individuals without number. The civil com- 
pact never sets limits to the numbers of a nation,, 
nor the city charter to the number of the citizens. 
And in the first covenant made with man, w^hich 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 35 

gave birth to the most extensive moral constitu- 
tion with vi^hich we are acquainted, it is obvious 
that Adam was the representative of human na- 
ture; and whether that nature was to be develo- 
ped in ten generations or in ten thousand, was a 
matter of no consequence at all in the applica- 
tion of the principle. Upon no man could it 
have its influence of whom he was not the fed- 
eral representative; upon every man to whom he 
might afterwards stand in that relation its influ- 
ence was to be direct. That is to say, human 
nature, as descending from him by ordinary gen- 
eration, was the object specified; and the applica- 
tion of the covenant terminates upon A. B. and C. 
not in consequence of any individual specifica- 
tion in the compact, but because they are of that 
body which the compact specified. No doubt 
God, who knows the end from the beginning, 
and appoints the bounds of every man's habita- 
tion, had every individual in his view, and the 
production of such individual is the develope- 
ment of his plan. But we must carefully dis- 
tinguish between that limitation within which 
God actually confines the operation of a cove- 
nant, and which is .with him a matter of choice, 
and that limitation which the covenant itself is 
understood necessarily to impose. The latter is 
the measure of the capacities of a system, the for- 
mer of its practical effects. 

Again. Let it be remembered that not only 
the whole body is identified with the head of a 
system, such as we have had in our view, but 
every individual memberj every constituent por- 



33 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

tion of that body is thus identified. If a treafy 
of commerce be settled between two nations, 
w^hich leaves the way open to unshackled exer- 
tion, then every member of either nation has a 
perfect right to cxsrt himself to the uttermost. 
If he and his family be but a milHonth part of 
the nation, it does not therefore follow that he 
is limited to one part in a million of the benefits 
thus laid open to his people; he has access to the 
wholt. On the other hand, if reprisals be made 
upon an offending nation, and violence commit- 
ted, it is a matter of perfect indifference how^ ma- 
ny or how few are the individuals upon whom 
the evil falls. They have no right to object that 
they are but a thousandth or a still smaller part 
of the nation which provoked die severe return, 
and that therefore their property should be held 
bound for only that proportion of the remunera- 
tion sought. All men regard them as identified 
with the nation, and the whole of their posses- 
sions as justly liable for the nation's fault. So 
too in the first covenant, the guilt of Adam's sin 
is not partitioned out among his descendants, but 
the whole of that guilt, and the whole burden of 
the curse entailed with it, descends undivided to 
every soul of man. 

Finally; from the view that has been given it 
will be seen that our personal consent, or even 
our existence at the time such body was consti- 
tuted, or for ages after, is by no means necessa-^ 
17 to our being treated as a part of a great politi- 
cal or moral whole, and being justly entitled ta 
all the benefits resulting from good management 



THE BOBY OV CHRIST. 37 

or exposed to all the evils naturally flowing from 
a contrary event. In one word, of whatever sys- 
tern any man forms a part, he is to all intents and 
purposes identified with that system; his fate is 
bound up in its fate, to the full extent of his con- 
nexion with it; nor is there any possible way of 
separating himself from these results, but by se- 
A cring the ties that bind him to the body. 



NO. 



If it be a fact consonant to reason and certified 
^)y Scripture, that all the redeemed of God are 
•members in particular'' of one body, it may ap- 
pear natural, and certainly is not unimportant, to 
inquire, what is the tie by which men are bound 
together in a federal relation, so intimate and ex- 
tensive? and what are ihe ends intended to be an- 
swered by this constitu • i : n? They are certainly 
objects of legitimate in lui -y; and as the press of 
other matters deemed of more itnmediate impor- 
tance to the mass of our readers, has for some 
time past excluded 'Hhe body of Christ'' from 
our pages, we shaU compress into the present 
number all that appears necessary to be said on 
tho •■'^- points, lest we should never arrive at the 
devjlopement of those '-lesults,'' which, as oar 
readers know, furnished the sole motive for the 
present undertaking. 



38 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

Federal unity, or as we have generally called 
it in the course of this discussion, moral associa- 
tion, necessarily supposes, in CA^ery instance, some 
one or more bonds of union by which individu- 
als become compacted together, and consolidated, 
as it w^ere, into one common mass. Every mo- 
nied man is not a member of a banking compa- 
ny: nor does every inhabitant of a country iorm 
a constituent portion of the nation among whom 
he resides. There is always some one principle 
which forms the basis of every association of men, 
and is esteemed an indispensable condition of 
their connexion with the mass; or rather, is in 
fact the very bond by which they are thus con- 
nected. This connective principle will of course 
vary in its kind, according to the nature of the 
association of which it forms the bond. Elec- 
tion and subscription to certain articles of com- 
pact will be that bond, in some cases. Birth, or 
adoption, constitute it in others. But it is per- 
fectly clear from the nature of such associations, 
that there always must be some uniting principle. 
Hence we said, that if the church of the living 
God really form but one great body, of which 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Head, and every 
other individual a component part, it is a subject 
of in :Uiry, natural, important, and legitimate, 
what is the connective principle, what is the bond 
of union in this extensive and sublime associa^ 
tion? Be it remembered that the question is not 
m^rreiy what unites the Christian man to Cl^rist; 
bui what unites all Christian men to one another 
as well as to theii^ Heud.^ For we are repeatedly 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 39 

told in so many words, that they who are desig- 
nated members of Christ, are likewise '^every one 
members of one another."^ And hence results 
the principle, that in promoting the real good of 
any Christian man, or of any Christian church, 
you promote the good of the whole church of 
Christ; you do service to the Lord himself, and 
shall accordingly be considered and rewarded:! 
4^nd in refusing to do service to any individual, 
or to any church that' calls upon the name of Je- 
sus Christ, you refuse to do service^ to himself.J 
Verily it was not without good reason "that the 
great, the good, the justly venerated Thomas 
Boston was accustomed to declare, that such as 
love none but Christians of their own denomina- 
tion (and of course, restrict their services to their 
own church)^ are souls too narrow for the king- 
dom of heaven. But we should perhaps solicit 
pardon for this digression, so contrary to all rule. 
The question is, Vvhat so completely consoli- 
dates and individualizes the Christian church, 
that it is oxit vvdth Christ, even as he is one with 
the Father; and all its members are members of 
Christ and of one tinother? It is common to say, 
that there is in this case a tv/o fol4 bond of union, 
faith on man's side, and the Holy Spirit on God's 
side. With this representation we perfectly ac- 
cord, provided it be allowable to explain the 
sense in which, as we would venture humbi} to 
suggest, it is alone admissible. It is certainly as 

* Rom. xii. 5.; and Epbes. iv. 25. 
i.Matth. xxy. 40. |Icl. 45. 



40 TKtE BODY OF CHRIST. 

impossible as it would be unscriptural, to 0011- 
ceive of living Christianity existing in a subject 
capable of faith, but who was nevertheless living 
in the most unqalified unbelief. The direct and 
necessary tendency of unbelief, is departure from 
the living God; and the equally necessary ten. 
dency of faith is approximation to him. While 
therefore, the just are said in scripture to walk by 
faith, to receive Christ by faith, even to be jus- 
tified by faith, it will remain forever an unqucs- 
tionable truth, that faith is inseparable from re- 
generation, or if you will, from a state of union 
with the Lord Jesus Christ; in so far as the dec- 
laration has respect to subjects capable of such 
an exercise of their iaculties. We admit, like- 
wise, that in every other case, faith in the habit 
'<is it is called, is an mdispensable accompaniment 
of union with the Redeemer. But indeed, to 
that very phrase, '*faith in the habit,'' or more 
generally ''grace in the habit," we have msuper- 
able objections, if it be interpreted to mean any 
thing but the native tendencies and necessary dis- 
Dositions of the new nature — that *'law in the 
r.ind," against v/hich the law in the members 
wars. Nor even in that sense is the phrase de- 
fensible, though the sentiment it is intended to 
convey is unquestionably sound. Habit is a dis-- 
position to act in a certain way, and to attach 
ourselves to certain objects, formed or at least 
mightily strengthened by repeated acts. But, 
doubtless, that wliich we call the habit of faith^ 
and of the various other graces, exists as really in 
the regenerated idiot, and in the favoured being 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 41 

^'sanctified from the womb^'' as in the most ac- 
complished Christian; and yet ceruiinly, in nei- 
ther oi" these cases can it be said with truth, that 
repeated acts, or even a single act has taken place. 
By consequence, habits properly to called, can- 
not possibly exist. We do not wish, however, 
to render ourselves singular about a mere strife 
of words. It is sufficient for our purpose, if our 
readers can see with us, that union with the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and consequently with his people, 
is perfectly separable from the actual exercise of 
faith; in as much as there may be, and no doubt 
always have been many living members of the 
living Head, incapacitated by their circumstances 
for receiving tha». n: cord of God's Son, which is 
the alone tbundaticn of the Christian faith. Here 
then, clearly, we have suiiicient ground to assert^ 
that if faith be not a uniform nor an indispensable 
accompaniment of the mystical union, it cannot 
be called in any case the bond of that union, ex- 
cept in a kind of secondary and very imperfect 
strnse. For surely we ought not to expect that 
any one v/ill be found so disingenuous and un- 
reasonabl.e, as to foist in a supposition, that the 
mode of instating men in the covenant of grace 
is not necessiirily uniform. If such persons should 
be ibund, it will doubtless be an easy matter to 
dislodge them; but until there appears a necessi- 
ty for proving a self-evident proposition, it would 
b* luwise to enter upon any such question, lest 
i3e only fighting as those who beat the air. Let 
iioi th" pious spirit startle at the suggestions that 
have been dropped upon this subject. We cer- 

P2 



42 THK BODY QF CHRIST. 

tainly do not mean either to oppose or explain a 
way the faith of the churches on this verj^ impor 
tant article. All that we object to, is the puitin^i 
a rigid interpretation upon a lax mode of expres 
sion, and thereby exalting into the character of iJ 
bond of union in this most important of all asso 
ciations, the exercise of a grace which is at besi 
but occasional in its operations, while at tlie same 
time, it must be conceded that the tmion may 
subsist, and often has subsisted, where no faith 
couldht exercised; and that between the Redeem- 
er and all the hosts of hi$ redeemed, it unques- 
tionably shall subsist wliten faith and hope will 
have forever ceased- 

We seek then, for som€ other, some unchang- 
ing, some permanent, miiversal bond of union 
that serves in fact^ as well as in form of law,, to 
unite the people of God to their exalted Head, 
and at the s^ime time renders them members one 
of another. This indispensable, universal, ever- 
lasting h)ond the Scriptures every where point 
out. Without controversy it may be asserted 
of every infant, and of every idiot, as well as of 
all others, '^if a7iy man have not the spirit of 
c.BRi ST, he is none ofhis.'^'^ In every case, with- 
out so much as one exception^ it may be safely 
said, "if Christ be in you the body is dead be- 
cause of sin, but the Spirit is life because of 
righteousness.^' And yet more clearly to our 
purpose, "j/* the spirit ^f him that raised up 
Jesus from the dead dwell in you^ he that raised 
np Christ from the demi shall also qnich^n your 



THE BODY OF CIIRiST. 4,o 

mortal bodies bijhis Spirit that dwtlkth in you. '"^ 
And hence the Apostle, in the first of ihe \ t^ses 
just quoted makes the question of regeneration, 
and by consequence of justification too, depend 
entirely upon the fact of the Holy Spirit hav g 
ta!<en possession of the m^.n: *'Ye are not in tiic 
liesh but in the Spirit, ip so be that the spi- 
rit OF God dwell in you.'' We read that 
^'itisby one Spirit;^^^ that both Jew and Gentile 
have access through Christ unto the Father. And 
when believers, under tlie emblem of ''living 
stones," are spoken of as parts of ^'the building 
fitly framed together, and growirig- unto an hc/ly 
temple in the Lord,'' we read that ihcy ''arc 
bwlded togtihtY for an habitation of God thro' 
THE sHiRiT.^J In fact, that very foith which 
is said to justify the sinner, is called in so many 
w^crds, a '4ruit of the spirit, "5 and springs 
up only as one among the multitude of graces 
that are born together in the regenerated crea- 
ture. The Scriptural reader will readil}^ turn 
up scores of passages, in which the inin.ediate, 
the uniform, the indispensable agency of the Ho- 
ly Spirit is asserted, not only in the commence- 
jnient, but throughout the whole progress of spi- 
ritual life. II And by availing himself of the full 
blaze of scriptural light upon this subject, be 
will further discover, that to X\\t saints in heaven 
as well as saints on earth; to the angels \vho 
kept their first estate as well as to regenerated 

*Rom. viii. 9, 10, 11. f Eph. ii. 3* |Id. 22. 
§Gal. V. 2^. fiSes especially 1 Gor. xii. !!>. 



44 THE BODY OF CHRIST- 

m?n, the Spirit of jdiovah ij> litr Mumediate dis- 
pcio^r of ail tiicir meaSviros of grace and h ippi- 
ncf-s. N iv, further, the Lord Jesus Christ him- 
sell, in whom is said to dwell ''ail the fuhiess of 
the Godhead bodily/' was quickened, w .;s gifted 
for tile exercise of his ministry, was raised from 
the dccid, and even after his ascension, wlien 
speaking in vision to the prophet John, dictated 
his epistles to the seven churches, through the 
supply that v/as given him of the Holy Spirit^ 
With whom he was annointed without measure, 
and who is, in fact, the communicater of eveiy 
thing we Ccili life to everv creature in the universe 
of God. 

We do not, however, intend a descant on the 
doctrine of the Spirit's agency. The fev^' re- 
marks oiFered, and scriptural passages adduced, 
are designed merely to bear upon the point: in 
hand, by shewing upon what grounds vv^e now 
explicitly assert, that the Holy Ghost is the actu- 
al bond of union, ^nd in the strict sense of the 
words, exclusively the bond of union by which 
the members become identified with the Head, 
and united to one another. Not that fecTeral u- 
nion necessarily follows from the fact, that all 
creatures partake of spiritual life, through a par- 
ticipation of the same Spirit. This angels do, 
and yet they stand in no such federal relation to 
man, or to one another, as is asserted of the church 
of the Firstborn. Had they been thus compacted 
in one federal body, they must have had a com- 
mon Head, they must have inherited a common 
lot: it never cotild have been as it actually has 



THE BODY GF CHRIST. 4S 

fallen out, that some should fall into perdition, 
while others kept their first estate. But when 
we see the Lord Jesus constituted the Head of a 
great system, we see a foundation laid for the de- 
velopement of such a system in the graduw^l pro- 
duction and increase of its parts. He takes upon 
him a nature common to a multitude of men. 
That assumption of their nature does not unite 
them to him, but it lays a basis upon which such 
union may take place. As the wearer of human 
nature, he is baptized with an im.measurable ef- 
fusion of the Holy Spirit upon himself: Theyi/A 
?2ess of the Spirit dwells in the God-man. Com- 
munications of that Spirit are therefore emphati- 
cally communications of '^tke Spirit of Christ;'^ 
and doubtless it is under this very view that the 
Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Christ. Hence 
it follows, that if out of that fulness by which he 
himself is endowed with grace and qualified with 
gifts, be communicates a m.easure to any other 
being v/earing the same nature, he becomes the 
Head of influences, the principle df life, the heart 
as it were to that being; and thus not merely in 
Iaw% but in fact, unites him to himself; and the 
reason of recognizing the union in law, is because 
it exists in very fact. And it is by thus bap- 
tizing an innumerable multitude with that bap- 
tism wherewith he was himself baptized, that he 
becomes to them a federal Head, and they be- 
come the members of his body and of one ano- 
ther. As the heart of this system, he propels the 
life's blood through every limb; and just in pro- 
portion to the measure of his communications. 



4-6 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

makes them partakers of all that is in himseli. 
In proportion as they are thus made * 'partakers 
of the di%^ine: nature,"'*^ the propensities and qual- 
ities of that nature manifest themselves directly 
— ^naturaliy — necessarily, in heart and life. And 
23 they are sinful corrupted creatures, that arc 
thus identified with the SavioUr, and made par- 
takers of his nature, such participation infers a 
change m their nature, and that change we call 
regeneration. All that cluster of graces then, 
faith not excepted, which the scriptures call • 
"fruits of the Spirit,^' are the product of regen- 
eration; and regeneration itself is the product of 
union with the Son of God. So that in the or- 
der of nature, union with Christ stands first; next 
to this regeneration, as a native and immediate 
consequence; and all graces follow regenemtion, 
as the acts of a renewed creature. The enmity 
is destroyed, the eyes are opened, the affections 
are regulated — and then^ when truth is presented 
they discern iL they love it, they obey it. 

Thus then, stands the church of the living 
God. The Lord Jesus Christ is constituted the 
fountain of influences; he puts forth that Spirit 
by wliich he himself (as the wearer of our nature) 
lives, into the bosoms of multitudes of slain. 
All, therefore, stand united by a common prin- 
ciple of life, and are obviously connected with 
one another, by the very same principle that 
serves to connect them with the Head, "from 
which all the body, by joints and bands, having 

*2 Pet. i. 4, 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 47 

nourishment miiiistercd, and knit together, m- 
creaseth with the increase of God "* 

*Having thus ascertained what it is that con- 
stitutes the bond of union in ''the body of Christ," 
and shewn with as much clearness, and in as few^ 
w^ords as we knev.^ how, that ''THE UNITY 
OF THI^: SPIRIT/' which is to be kept 'Hn 
the bond of peace J '^'\ is not a mere fictitious re- 
kitioni^hip, known only in law, but an actual u- 
nion of which the Holy Spirit is the real bon3; 
it only remains to inquire, what are the ends in- 
tended by this constitution/' This inquiry may 
be satisfied in very few words. The Redeemer 
thereby secures the justification of his people. 
The very fact of his taking them into union with 
huviseir, not only renders him ceipable of account- 
ing, but actually accountable, for the whole body 
of which he thus became tlie Head. They are 
no longer known as individuals; thev are "in 
Christ.'' He then, is called to answer for his 
members; and they stand or fall with him. Hence 
the propitiation made by him for us, takes away 
all guilt. He bore the sins of the body ^'in his 
own body on the tree;" and the curse exhausted, 
there can be no more condemnation. He also 
*4*uliilled all righteousness," and consequently 
heads a righteous system, rendering it "complete 
in him." All those "good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all people," flow directly from 
the facility with which this arrangement "finishes 
transgression, and makes an end of sin." And 

*©oi, ii. 19.; aud Eph. iv, i«. tid. 3. 



48 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

so long as God's Holy Spirit is graciously vouch- 
safed to "convince the world of sin, and of right- 
eoiisness, and of judgraent," union v^ith the Sa- 
viour will be sought and appreciated as the sin« 
ner's only refuge. 

The sanctijicafioji of the body is another of 
the consequencesfiowing from the mystical union, 
and undoubtedly occupies a principal place a- 
mons: the reasons of the constitution. We have 
already anticipated almost unavoidably, the few 
remarks intended upon this subject, while attend- 
ing to the question of union. Without repeating 
the statements there m.ade, let it be sufficient to 
remark that the Holy Scriptures not only ascribe 
iimformlij the sanctification of a sinner to the Spi- 
rit's agency, but do so under the connexion which 
vve have been attempting to develope. The sixth 
and eighth chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, 
seem to be entirely modeled upon this view of 
the subject. Christian men cannot continue in 
sin, it is declared. Wherefore? Because, argues 
the Apostle, the very fact of their being Chris- 
tians presupposes their having been placed in such 
a connexion, as renders their continuance in sin 
impossible. *'How shall we that are dead to sin 
live any longer therein? Knov/ ye not that as ma- 
ny of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were 
baptized into his death." If baptized into him 
at all, if made one with the Head of the great sys- 
tem, we of course, cannot pursue a different inter- 
est and direction from that Head; we cannot pro- 
mote those works of the devil which he died to 
destroy: but rather^ a$ being one with him in that 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 45 

gpcr.t constitution, \\c must drink of the cup 
where of he also drankc And if thus '*pk^nted 
together with him in the likeness of his death," 
it will follow, by the siime i:r.v, that ''we shall be 
also in the hkeness of his rci.i.irrcction:" that is, 
as die Apostle just before i^t'-.tes, we shall ^^walk 
in newness of life, like as Cliribt w^as raised up 
fronm tfee dead by the glory c-f the Father." Our 
readers, if they please, may look over the whole 
passage, and we shall certainly agree that they are 
very cunning men, if they can shew any consis- 
tency of reason, or coherency of thought, in the 
Apostle's argument, upon any other supposition 
than his assumption of the mystical union as the 
basis of sanctification. So also, when in the se- 
venth chapter we read of liis being "dead to 
the law by the body of Christ," and hcdv him state 
that "bringing forth fruit to God" is the aim, as 
well as issue of th.at arrangement, we certainly 
cannot understand him in aiiv sense at all, unk ss 
the one we are attempting to establish be the cor- 
rect one. 

Finally: the resurrection of the just is likewise 
^oken of as resulting directly from the same 
uiiion. This point the sacred writers, in so far 
as we recollect, never attempt to prove. They 
always speak of it as if it were a seif-evident pro^ 
position, and without scruple or ceremony rt.ur 
> ihe principle in proof of the resurrection. Tims, 
ill that well known passage in the xv. of 1 Cor. 
ihe x\postle, stating the matter in perh.jps every 
imiginable shape, and reiterating his argu- 
ment several times, always Ms^umes ior the basis 

E 



50 THE BODY OF CHRIST. 

of his reasoning, that iht Rtdccnicr and his peo- 
ple necessarily stand or lail together, as p^ur:. of 
the same system — '*if the dead rise not, then is 
not Christ risen:" '^Christ the i'rst fruits; after- 
ward thej^ that are Christ's at his coming.'^ 

From the ccmmencement, therefore, to the 
<:onsummation of the cliureh of God, Chrihi is 
all in all. ''He is the Hcdd of his bod) ihp 
Church;" in him she lives, by him she stai d.^, 
with him she inherits, and to him it is required 
that she be devoted in all her members. Si;' h 
is her constitution; and from this constitution 
flows not only a multitude of doctrines of exten- 
sive sweep, but also a multitude of duties of 
■*high and noble bearing." It is to these, espe- 
cially to the latter, that we have been ail along 
desirous to call the attention of our readers. Some 
time, however, must elapse before this desire can 
be accomplished. The same causes which for 
some time past suspended the course of these es- 
says, will again arrest it. Other subjects demancjl 
an immediate hearing; and iht p.iges of '^he Re- 
cord" are not suffi'jiently ample lor the reception 
of every thing by which we would willingiy **stii: 
up the pure minds" of the brethren, ''by way of 
remembrance." Perceiving, however, that ihe 
vocation of a Christian is so high and holy, let 
our readers be entreated, distinctly to reflect on 
the vast difference between union with the Son 
of God, a,nd a mere ''name to live." And let 
sue h of them as are Christians indeed, be s(ilicit- 
ops 'o comply with the obligations evidently b d 



THE BODY OF CHRIST. 51 

means, the welfare and increase of that body, in 
connexion with which lie their safety and their 
glory. Especially let all men Itty to heart, that 
the doctrine we have been considerin,^ furnishes 
one of tht:^ best and most facile means of ascer- 
taining ''what manner of spirit we are of:" for 
it is both a scriptural and a self-evident con-, 
elusion, from the view that has been given of 
*'the body of Christ," that "whether one mem- 
ber suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one 
member be honoured, all the members rejoice 
with it." 



isro.iv. 

RESULTS. 

From th(^ proofs and illustrations already sub- 
mitted relative to the doctrine of the rnystjcal 
union, it will at once appear, that a correcfan- 
swer to the inquiry, Are you or are you not a 
member of "the body ot Christf " decides at once 
what is a man's present standing in the sight of 
God. Christ's church is his b )dy;* there can 
be no such thing as living christiinity but in 
connexion with his body; for it has been abuh- 
da t!y shewn that that connexion is the ' '^ v\ 
o: : ga of every thing belonging to chris ^C 

and life: consequently, every aie. .;i the 

*'Ephe'^. :.. 2:3, Coiios. i. 18 arid 24. 



52 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

Church visible of Christ, every person who pro- 
fesses himself a christian, is professedly a mem- 
ber of the body of Christ. He may not be so in 
fact; you may not be bound to recognize his 
claim; but still that is the amount of such pro- 
fession. The whole church visible on earth is 
professedly (in connexion with departed saints) 
*^tlie body of Christ;" and therefore every one 
who occupies the station of a member of the 
church, avou's his relation as a member of 
Christ. 

Upon this group.d, then, we adopt, as our first 
result, the words of a well known and justly ad- 
mired composition, commonly received among 
the churches: 

'^Saints hy profession, ARE BOUND to 
maintain an holy fellowship and communion in 
the vv'orship of God, and in performing such other 
spiritual services as tend to their mutual edifica- 
tion; as also in relieving each other in outward 
thinofs, accordino' to their several abilities and nc- 
ce$sitics. Which communion, as God offereth 
opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who 
in every place call upon the name of the Lord 
Tcsus.''^ 

This result, we say, is founded upon the as* 
sumption, that the body or church of Christ is 
?>n€; so that all who are '^saints by profession*' 
;re of course professedly m^embers of one body 
— '^members one of another;" and it is as mem- 
bers of the bcdv of Christ, that the communion 

^ Westminster Conf. Cha>^ • 



rut BODY OF CHRIST —RESULTS. 



53 



of saints is extended to any of them. Nor is it 
a matter merely optional whether one saint by 
profession shall hold communion with another 
saint by profession: he is bounds says our propo- 
sition, he is ''bound^' so to do; under pain of be- 
ing proceeded ag-ainst as a despiser of the ordi-^ 
nances of Christ tendered to himself, or as a re- 
jecter of them whom God hath received into the 
fellowship of his body. 

It is not unknown that multitudes are linwil- 
ling to admit this result; and therefore bend their 
whole force to give another interpretation to the 
passage quoted. But why? Wherefore reject 
the proposition that all who are members of the' 
body of Christ, should hold fellowship together 
as members of one another? The terms, we have 
seen, are convertible: all who are members of 
the living head, are also of one another: and if 
all God's ordinances of grace were given, as is 
declared, "for the edifying of the body of Christ''* 
why not bound to seek for ourselves, why no* 
obliged to extend to all others, professedly menl- 
bers of the same body, the rrieans of edification 
declaredly ordained for the comfort and growth 
of the whole? But without spending time in at- 
tempting to decide the precise meaning which 
the language in question w^ould naturally convey, 
let the appeal be to the scriptures: let us see -^ 
whether any other meaning than the one which 
has been suggested, does not contradict the ana- 
lo^y of faith, and in a great degree hinder the 

"^Ephes. iv. 12—16, 

e2 



i>4 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

plain intention of God's ordinances. And as the 
difference of view principally relates to what is 
called organical communion, let it be especially 
inquired, whether the fellowship of Christians in 
sealing ordinances, in the ordinance cf the sup- 
per, ought not of right to be extended to all 
^^saints by profession;" to '^^,11 those who in eve- 
ry place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.'- 
Our readers surely need not be told that, it is on 
every hand conceded that the exercise cf whole- 
some discipline and the question of edification, 
will of course interpose tiieir exceptions to this 
conclusion in all cases, hav/ever wide be its range 
in every other respect. Nor is it more than barct- 
ly worth while to remark, that the expression 
•*saints by profession," is not designed to include 
all persons or sectaries who choose to assume the 
name of Christians; but only those who make a 
credible profession; tliat is to say, those whose 
views of fundi.mental truth are clearly consistent 
with a sound profession, and whose conduct does, 
not contradict the profession made by them. It 
IS not the bare assumption of the name, it is the 
exhibition oftke spirit, that constitutes a credible 
profession. And, therefore, any thing either in- 
the faith or practice ©f a man, that is plainly in- 
compatible with the character of a christian, nuU 
liiies his claim to the fellowship of the saints. 

Keeping in view these exceptions, the reader 
will put the proper cor.struction on the proposi- 
tion above quoted, when he understands it as de- 
claring that all persons \^ ho are believers by pro- 
fession, and consequemly professed members o£ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. l>:^ 

the Lord Jesus Christ, are mutually bound to re- 
cov^iiize iheir relationship to him and one ano- 
ther, oy holdini^ fellowship together in the wor- 
ship of God; and especially in that ordinance 
whic h is said to be ''a bond and pledge of their 
conmumion with him and with each other, as 
members of his mvstical bodv."^" This oblio:a- 
tion, it has been repeatedly remarivcd, springs out 
of the very constitution of the cliurch of God. 
The Avhole of the regulations c)nd ordinances 
found in this church were given to it as one. The 
right, therefore, to partake, arises out of the fact, 
that the party enjoying or applying for it is a 
member of that body, "for the edifying off 
v/hich they are declaredly provided. And there 
remains no way of lawfully refusing this claim 
(the exceptions above noted kept in mind) but 
by making it out that the claim itself is void, i. e. 
that the party applying is without credible pre- 
tensions to the character of a true cliristian. To 
this it will no doubt be objected, that we make 
the terms of con^munion in the visible church, 
one and the same with those that all admit to be 
indispensable to the communion of the church 
invisible. The allegation is admitted. We do 
say, that the terms upon which external christian 
fellowship avowedly proceeds, are the very ones 
which go to constitute the real christian charac- 
ter. The scriptures, also, say the same thing: 
and it is really wonderful, that any one should 

* Conf Faith, chap. xxix. sect, J 
t Ephes. iv. 12. 



5 G THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

call the principle in question. Is it not a factv 
that every one who is not a member of Christ is 
without a just claim to the name of christian? 
and if he have no right to the name, upon what 
conceivable plan should he have a right to the 
privileges? Nay, is it not a common, a univer-- 
sal thing, in debaring from the supper of the 
Lord, to state that they who are not of the body 
of Christ, who are not believers in the strict and 
only proper sense of the word, have no right to 
partake of that holy table of the Lord, and in ad- 
venturing so to do, eat and drink judgment to 
themselves? Will any one say, that all the trea- 
sures of knowledge and fire of zeal can qu ilify 
in any respect, where they are not found in a liv-- 
ing member of the great community? or, is there 
on earth a christian church that dare admit sucb^ 
characters on the ground of their orthodoxy, 
when at the same time they did iK>t even profess 
to be christians indeed? Whatever else naay be 
su[:>€radded as additional terms of communion, 
then, every church agrees that union with the 
Lord Jesus is a term not to be dispensed with: 
and, therefore, a profession of this union is al- 
ways looked upon as implied if not expressed^ 
True, indeed, men cannot search the heart — 
they are not, therefore, able infallibly to deter- 
mine the soundness of the claim: but still, it is 
uix)n tlie advancement of this claim that they are 
admitted; and the circumstances of credibility 
under which it is preferred furnish the rule of 
judgment laid down for them in the scripture, 
lu tiie application of this rule they may be mis- 



THE BODY OF CHRIST .-RESULTS. 



Sir 



taken: but in assuming tlie principle, that all 
christians have a right to christum ordinances, 
(with the exception above named), and xXvdlnone 
but a christiau can have any right, there is obvi- 
ousiy no mistake. If then such as really have 
ho r'ight nnpose upon the churches, they must 
be borne with until such time as the^r conduct 
reveals their true character; or till the Lord him- 
self shall separate the tares from the wheat. _ If 
this, then, be to make the terms of communion 
in the church risible and invisible the same, who 
so mad as to insist that they are different? What 
is the church invisible but Christ's body.^ What 
is the church visible but professedly Christ's bo- 
(\y? Is it strange, then, if the one be professed- 
ly what the other is really, that the terms of com- 
munion in them should be professedly the same? 
or rather, v/ould it not be a marvellous result, li 
a distinction created on account of false profes- 
sors, who have no right to be numbered with the 
church in any sense, should give rise to different 
sorts of terms of communion, merely for the pur- 
pose of covering the admission of those whose 
very entrance is predicated upon the supposition 
of their being true men! ! But it is really trifling 
with our readers patience, and ruffling our own, 
to attempt reasoning on this subject. _ It is a ve- 
ry clear thing, that unless membership in Chri^ 
be an indispensable term of lawful communion 
with his church, the sacraments are not rightly 
called "seals of the covenant of grace," or 
"pledges" of the saints "communion as mem- 
bers qY Christ's mystical body. ' And on the 



II 



38 THE SODY OF CHRIST —RESULTS. 



Other hand, if the} arc really such, the church is 
bound to consider living Christianity an indispen- 
sable term, and to admit none except as they 
sustain a ci'edible claim to the character of living 
trhristiaiis. So ilir then at least, the terms of com- 
munion in the church visible and invisible are 
the same. For communion in the church mt?J- 
sihle no other term is requisite. The question, \ 
therefore, is, what right has the church visible to ; 
superadd other terms? or can such right be piead^ 
teL exist at all? Churciies we know have of late 
been in the habit of creating multitudes of in- 
dibpensables: or, in other words, of narrowing 
the way of admittance into their communion to 
^uch a degree, that multitudes whom they bie- 
lieve and admit to be christians are necessarily 
excluded. That is to say, they not only insist 
that men should afford evidence that they are 
christians indeed, but they impose the obligation j 
of receiving and defending their views of scrip- 1 
tural doctrine and order, in every point concern- 
ing which they have seen proper to declare an| 
opinion. All, therefore, who eannot in all these ' 
things conscientiously profess a coincidence of 
view, are necessarily cut off. Is this right? or 
father, are not these "saints bv profession, BouNt) 
to maintain an lioly fellowship and communion" 
in those great ordinances about which there is 
no difference of view, notwithstanding a diversi- 
ty of sentiments in other mi^tters? So says our 
proposition: so also says the scripture. For here, 
likewise, the constitutions of the churches visible 
ami invisible agree. It would be strange mdeed 



I 



iHE BODY OF CHRIST.^RESULTS. 5iy 

if they did not. It would be ''passing strange" 
if the terms were more lax hi the coniessedly 
pure church, than in that the supposed impurity 
of which affords the only ground for creating this 
distinction But "to the law and to the tcstimo- 
ny." The word of God itself recognizes living 
Christianity as the ail important term, aid in the 
church visible as v/ell as invisible it recogijizes 
no other. 

"The cup of blessing, which we bless," what 
is it? The badge of a party? The attestation 
of our agreement in some contested point al> nit 
which we differ w^itli others, called christ-ao? 
The pledge of our adherence to a certain "term 
of sound words?" No such thing. "Is it not," 
say the scriptures, "-'the communion of the blood 
ofChrisf^ The bread which we break, is it aot 
the communion of the body of Christ?^'^^ This is 
precisely the nature of that communion ab ut 
which the greatest particularity is observed. It 
is the sign and pledge of those who partake of it 
being one in Christ: it is a fellowship which they 
hold under the specific idea of being tuembers 
of his body. So at least says our apostle. For 
in the next verse he adds, as the ground of this 
communion, and therefore as the thing att^s^fd 
by it, that "we being many are one bread and one 
body; for we are :i!l partakers of that one bread." 
Clearly then, in our Aj^ostie's view, the church's 
h^m^ one bread and one body, is the ground of 
ibe CQminuinijDn nraintained by her members in 

♦ J Coy. viil \S. 



i% 



60 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

the supper of the Lord. And the whole of this 
ordinance is confessedly designed to shadow forth 
their severally uniting with Christ himself, whence 
thcv become united one with another. This 
view of the subject, be it remembered, is intro- 
duced by our Apostle, to shew the inconsistency 
of admitting professed idolaters to the holy com- 
munion. No idolater can be at the same lime 
a member of Christ. This is repeatedly taught 
in scripture, and direcdy insinuated in the passage 
in question: ^'ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord 
and the cup of Devils; ye cannot be partakers of 
the Lord^s table and of the table of Devils.'' And 
just before, it had been said, that ''the things 
which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to 
Devils." It is then to combat this view, that the 
Apostle insists upon the term of communion al- 
ready adverted to. Communion in the sacrament 
of the Sapper, he says, is the communion of the 
body and blood of Ciirist. For. says he, it pro- 
ceeds upon the ground of our being one bread 
and one body; inasmuch as we are all partakers 
of that one bread, i. e. of Jesus Christ, the bread 
of life. And from this assumption, that partici- 
pation in the ordinance supposes and signifies par- 
ticipation of Christ the one bread, by which they 
themselves become one bread and one body, 
he argues the incongruity of admitting idolaters 
to fellowship in the ordinance; whereas they are 
maniiestly not partakers of Christ, and so not one 
bread and body with his people. The amount 
of the reasoning is, that men have no right to the 
symbol^ while they have maniiestly no interest in 



j 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 61 

in the Saviour, and consequently nothing in com- 
mon with his body or cliurc!?. — The reader will 
do well to mark carefully tlie progress of this ar- 
gument. 1. The Supper is tlic symbol of the 
pardon and life, together with all other saving 
benefits that are in Christ. This is the Apostle's 
first proposition: it is the '^communion of thcblood 
and body of Christ." 2. Tb.e ground of men's 
holding fellowship in this ordinance is their bciiig 
parts of the one great system that is saved: '4or 
we being many, are one bread and one body," 
3. The principle by v/hich they are thus united 
into one system; and so called to act as members 
the one of another; ''for vre are all partakers of 
that one bread." Here then is a passage in which 
the terms of Christian communion are professedly 
treated of, treated of, too, with a special reference 
to the doctrme of exclusion from Christian fel- 
lowship: yet not a whisper, not the slightest sug- 
gestion of any other ground of admission, but 
living union with the living head; and not the re* 
motest hint of any impediment but the want of 
such connexion. 

But further: that we have not built too broad 
an inference on the Apostle's premises, plainly 
appears from this fact, that a profession of such 
union with the Lord Jesus Christ was always re- 
quired, and tiothing else than such profession was 
required during Apostolic times. -'Dost thou 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.^" — "If thr>u be* 
lievest thou mayest," was always the question, 
was always the condition propounded to those 
who sought the privileges of the Christian church. 

F 



62 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

And a con'cspondent reply always secuktd tff 
privilege. Now, no well informed Christian will 
pretend to say, that a profession of faith in Jesus . 
Christ was ever understood to mean any thing 
differerent from a reliance on him for the great 
salvation offered in his gospel. It \vas always 
(whether truly or falsely made) the avowal of liv- 
ing faith, the profession of laying hold upon himi 
for the hope of eternal life. This a professioni 
of believing always meant: thi^ it still means. 
But he who truly believes in Christ really lays 
hold on Christ — is one with him. Admission,, 
therefore, upon an avowal of faith in the Redeem- 
er, was simply the recognition of the applicant as 
a member of Christ; it was a recognition of his 
claim to all those privileges which the living head 
has provided for the body, and for every mem-^ 
ber of it. That it could imply no such appro- 
bation of the whole circle of Christian truth aa 
is now frequently attributed to it, or that it could 
not be understood as a declaration of an intention 
to support every thing contained in this circle, is 
a plain case. For the profession was exacted 
from all men, Gentile as well as Jew: from the 
convert of an hour, who had enjoyed no previous 
acquaintance with the truth of God, as well af 
from those to whom it had been familiar fron: 
infiincy. Now, that such men as the jailor o: 
Philippi, or eunuch of Ethibpa, or the thousanc 
who were converted on the day of Pentecost, hac 
made acquisitions in knowledge that would ad- 
mit of such profession, declared or implied, if 
""plainiy impossible. They believed the truth 3* 



n 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 63 



the time declared by the Apostles and Evange- 
list, severally: it was that portion of truth which 
was calculated to lead them directly to Christ as 
the giver of repentance and eternal life: they pro- 
fessed to adhere to the offer as made to them: 
and then, as believers in Christ, as members of 
his body, they were baptized. Whatever, then, 
was necessary to a credible profession of faith 
in the Redeemer, was always exacted; but notliing 
more was exacted. They were immediiitely ad- 
mitted to the benefit of those ordinances which 
his goodness had provided, that in the participa- 
lion of these they might ^'grou- up into him in 
all things, which is the head." 

It will no doubt, be very ea3y to point out a 
multitude of circumstances in which modem 
churches differ from those of Apostolic days; and 
to devise multitudes of reasons why the Gentiles 
might be admitted upon a more general profes- 
sion than is now thought sufficient. And of this 
species of objection it may be proper hereafter 
to talie notice. But the present inquiry is di- 
rected solely to the question whether the Apos- 
tle^ did not consider living faith, or rather that 
union with Christ of which living faith is the ap- 
propriate fruit, as the proper, and only proper ba- 
sis of church communion. The inquiries made 
by them, we see were dirv^cted to that point, and 
to that point alone. The instructions upon which 
the profession was in most cases founded, were 
precisely of the kind that are needed for the pro- 
duction of such faith. And if these appeared to 
produce their appropriate effect; if they convin* 



64 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

c€cl the party addressed that they were sinners 
and Jesus Christ the Saviour; and if in eonse- 
quence of this conviction they professed to flee 
to him, it was all that was thought needful. They 
were immediately received into the fellowship of 
the saints: and in the enjoyment of this fellow- 
ship they were expected to '•grow in grace, and 
in the knoxvledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ." No instance is on record of a refusal 
of any person who appeared to possess this sin- 
gle qualification. 

Let us, however, to bring this point to a close, 
examine particularly one single instance out of 
the many. When the Apostle Peter went to 
Cesarea in obedience to a heavenly vision, upon 
entering into the house of Cornelius, and expoun- 
ding to 4he circle there assembled, the great doc- 
trine of redemption by Christ, "the Holy Ghost,'' 
it is said /'fell, upon all them which heard the word,'^ 
"while Peter yet spake." The inference imme-, 
diately drawn by the Apostle from this unexpec- 
ted gracious communication, was. that those 
Gentiles were chosen vessels, as well as himself 
cr any of the Jcv/ish brethren who had accom- 
panied him. Immediately therefore, he puts the 
question, ''-can any man forbid water, that those 
should not be baptized which have received the 
Holy Ghost as VvcH as we?" and accordingly forth- 
with he caused b iptisni to be administered. Up- 
on his return to Jerusalem we find that the church 
there was very much dissatisfied with the course 
that had been pursued. "They contended with 
him, saying, thou wentest in to men uncircum^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 65 

cisecl, and didbt cat with them." It is to be re- 
membered, tkit not only "brethren," but "Apos- 
ties" themselves were of the discontented party. 
Peter however "rehearsed the matter from* the be- 
ginning, and concluded his defence by supporting 
what he had done in relation to the baptism, from 
a well known declaration of our Lord himsQlf, 
which he quoted in so m.any words. His remarks 
upon the subject were closed in these word^: 
"forasmuch then as God gave unto them the like 
gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord 
Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand 
jpod." This exposition of the matter was deci- 
sive: "when they heard these things they held 
their peace ai)d glorified God, saying, then hath 
God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto 
life." 

Let the reader recollect, that the controversy 
concerning Jewish rites was not at this time de- 
cided. Peter had viewed them as obligatory; 
and w^s prepared to act in opposition to this view, 
only through the influence of a vision, accompa- 
nied by an explicit commandment to go with the 
men. The Apostles of Jerusalem contended with 
him about his procedure; and that the contention 
reached the matter of baptism, as w^ell as the go- 
ing in to uncircumcised men and eating with 
them, is evident from the fact that Peter's answer 
mainly defends the baptism. In fact, this point 
was not settled till ten years afterward in the sy- 
nod of Jerusalem: and even then, there was "much 
disputing" about it, as we are informed by the 
writer of the Acts. In the face, tlien, of all thest 

f2- 



66 THE BODY Ol CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

f>rejudices Peter decided; and the Apostles and 
brethren at Jerusalem, when they understood the 
matter, decided that it was right to admit uncir- 
cumciscd Gentiles to the communion of the church 
of God. Upon what grovmd did this decision 
rest? God had gixen them the same spirit that, 
had been imparted to the Jews: he hath "also to 
the Gentiles granted repcntiince unto life,'^ said 
this rejoicing and admiring multilude. To re- 
fuse the communion of men to whom God had 
^'granted repentance unto life^'^ was accounted 
by Peter a withstanding God. And so also, it 
would appear, judged all the brethren when the 
thing was rightly understood. Here then is proof 
not to be controverted, that the bare fact of a 
man's being in possession of God's spirit as the 
spirit of grace — of ''repentance unto life" (so they 
construed it) was, in the judgment of *' Apostles 
and brethren," reason enough for admitting him. 
into the communion of that body of which God ■ 
had made him a member. It may be said, in- 
deed, that if men in our day could make out their 
claims in the same manner, their admission would 
follow as a thing of course; but that we are not 
bound to take their own profession in proof of their 
Christianity. 

And what kind of evidence then would you 
wish to have? You do not require miraculous 
tfhisions of God's spirit, in support of the pre- 
tensions of those with whom you ordinarily do 
commune. What then is your authority for re- 
quiring it of others? That kind of proof which 
yw deem sufficient in one case, is equally so in 



tHE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 67 

all. If therefore, the miraculous effusion is not 
to be expected, the ordinar}'- evidence of repen- 
tance unto life is the utmost you may ask for. 
And if among brethren of your own denomina- 
tion this be deemed sufficient, and you at the 
same time refuse to decide recording to it in case 
of other applications, is not this to ^'withstand 
God?" But we must not trifle with the patience 
of the reader, by spending time in refuting such a 
wTetched cavil. The sum of the matter is, that 
the Apostles evidently considered the Holy Spi- 
rit's work as the only essential requisite to the 
communion of the saints. This, and this only^ 
made them members of the body, and to the 
members of the body, they were perfectly clear 
communion should be extended. The proof 
of this point is ^jl we want. For if it be a 
maxim every where assumed in scripture, and 
always acted upon by the Apostles, that the 
members of Christ aie, in virtue of their stand- 
ing, entitled to his fellowship,^ and to that of 
all their fellow members; theji,.. '^as saints by 
profession," aie by profession members of the 
body of Christ, they are consequently ^^ bound io 
maintain an holy fellowship and communion in 
the worship of God, and in performing such 
other spiritual services as tend to their mutual 
edification." And this "communion, as God 
offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all 
those who in every place cali upon the name of 
the Lord Jesus." Such is the conclusion to 
which we are necessarily led by following out 
the all important doctrine of tl:e Biblo| that the 
whole church of ^ ^ ''''^'' ' ' -^^z ^ -^ ^' 



68 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 
and all trut- christians '^members in particu- 

LAK.'* 

We may arri\ c at the sanie conckisiol([^in a 
variety of other ways. But as the consideration 
of them does not fall properly within the plan of 
this essay, to pursue the subject through all its 
3:amifications might subject the writer to the 
cliarge of ''travelling out of the record." There 
is, however, one other point of view in which 
the subject may be presented, at once so impor- 
tant and decisive that we cannot forbear "travel- 
ling'' a little out of our way to notice it. It is 
this: — one of the ?^reat ends for which the sucra- 
ments were instituted, unavoidably demand that 
fellowship in them should be maintained, to the 
extent already mentioned. The sacraments it is 
said by an authority which few of our readers 
will be disposed to call in question, are design- 
ed among other things, "to put a visible differ- 
ence between those that belong unto the church, 
and the rest of the world;"^ as well as "to be a 
bond and pledge of their communion with him, 
and with each other, as members of his mystical 
body;''! which is the point we havf been consi- 
dering. 

Now, if the assumption be correct, that the 
putting "a vii^ble difference between those that 
belong to the church and the rest of the world'* 
is an end of these institutions not to be lost sight 
of; what shall be said of the principle so much 
in vogue, that a participation in either of them. 

^Westminster Conf. chap, xxvii. sect. !. 
ticl. chap. xxix. sect, 1. 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. G9 

especially in the supper, amounts to a declara- 
tion, nay, is predicated vvpon a declaration, that 
the party thus admitted ranks with the deno- 
mination under whose banners he receives the 
ordinance, and promises to hold fellowship no 
where else.^ If the assumption be correct, what 
shall be said in justification of the practice of ex- 
cluding all who do not adopt the peculiar tenets 
of the church in question.^ Obviously that they 
have diverted the sacraments from their proper 
use, and rendered them badges by which each 
denomination is visibly distinguished from all 
other portions of the church, as well as from the 
world. There is no getting rid of this consequence. 
In fact it is one which most people are ready 
to avow. They do consider a participation in 
the supper, as an evidence that the party so com- 
municating belongs to tluit denomination in which 
he holds fellowship: and they do contend that to 
extend christian fellowship beyond the peculiar 
circle, is to trample upon the very distinction 
which the sacrament of the supper holds forth. 
That is to say, in direct contradiction to the au- 
thority above quoted, they do not admit the sa- 
craments to be intended to put a visible differ- 
ence between the church and the Vv^orld merely; 
but also contend that they put a visible difference 
between the members of the different churches. 
Hence it follows, that the refusal to participate, 
does not amount to an evidence that the party 
refusing is of the world, not of the church; it is 
only understood to decl .re that he is not of that 
denomination with the members of ^vhich he re 



70 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

fuses to hold fellowship. And on the other hand, 
the refusal to admit a person to the communion 
of the saints, is not understood as a denying his 
connexion with the church of Christ, but only 
his conne^^ion with the section of it that refuses 
him. 

The man must be wilfully blind who does not 
sec that this mode of construction destroys en- 
tirely the great intention of the sacraments as 
statexi above. For under this arrangement a 
person's own refusal to commune, or the refusal 
of the church to admit of his communing, cre- 
ates no such visible distinction between those 
who belong to the church and the rest of the 
world. And when we see the sacraments ad- 
ministered in a very large assembly, only a few 
of which join in the fellowship of the saints, so 
far from concluding that the residue are of the 
world not of th^ churchy wc cannot tell but diat 
tjie majority of them, and perhaps the whole of 
them^ oi^e of the church of Christ, as well as 
those who did ixirtake. This w^ere a marvel- 
lous device for "putting a visible difference" in- 
deed!— But admit the principle that the sacra- 
ments do "put a visible dierffence between those 
that belong unto the church and the rest of the 
xvorld;'' carry this principle out; and then where 
does modern practice land you? Certainly, when 
you refuse to extend fellowship to any persons, 
to the members of any other denomination, you 
say by that very deed that they do not belong to 
the church of Christ, but to the world. You 
do thisy for you arrogate to yourself, and you 
deny to them, that very symbol which you say 



THE BODY or CHRIST,— RESULTS. 71 

serves to put a visible difference between the 
two. You reeeive it; from them you witlihold 
it; and if receiving or not receiving constitutes 
the ^S'isible difference,'' you certainly make it 
out to be your ^'visible^^ opinion that the party 
in question are no members of Christ, but arc 
"of the world." We know that this is a conse- 
quence at which the reaily pious mind will star- 
tle — will shudder. But is it not a legitimate 
consequence.^ Must you not admit it, or deny 
the premises? that is, deny that the sacraments 
put a visible difference between church mem- 
bers and the world. You may indeed plead that 
you do not undertake to judge a brother: that as 
there is a difference in sentiment, you only mean 
to let that difference be marked: and meanwhile 
you leave it to God's judgment entirely, to de- 
cide the soundness or unsoundness of those jkr- 
sons and churches from v/hich you stand sepa- 
rate. But will that mend the matter? Does not 
the very fact of your refusing to countenance a 
fellow professor by joining him or permitting 
him to join you in an ordinance, one great end 
of which is putting **a visible difference" be- 
tween the members of Christ and the people o; 
the world — does not this very fact declare that 
there is a difference? Does it not declare that 
there is that very difference which the sacra- 
ments are said to mark? If it does not, then you 
deny that the sacraments constitute such visible 
mark, and so contradict your first principle: if it 
does, then you have already judged your brother? 
^ou have said he is of the v/orld. 



72 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

From this view of iriatlcrs it will appear that 
to restrict the communion of the saints in the 
participation of the sacraments to peculiar sec- 
tions of the church; and to erect such pv^nicipa- 
tion into an evidence of our agreement in certain 
opinions peculiar to such sections, amounts to a 
direct prostitution of God's great ordinances. — 
They are not only di\'erted from the declared 
object, the putting a visible difference between 
his own people and the Vvorld; but they are pros- 
tituted by being made the '' visible" tokens of 
men's agreement in sentiment about some point 
of doctrine or of order, in disputing about which 
the churches have been shattered. Thus, for in- 
stance, in the memorable case which gave rise 
to the sapient distinction between church com- 
munion and the comimunion of saints; the Se- 
cession churches having divided about the ques- 
tion of tlie Burgess' oath, respectively made an 
rigreement am.ong their members on this not 
vastly important question a term of communion. 
Thev could not be content that ''everv man 
should be iirmly persuaded in his owai mind;" 
but such as communed together must be of one 
mnxb The consequence then was, that their se- 
parate communion no longer distinguished them 
exclusively from the w^orld; it vras made a mean 
of distinguishing them from one another. Their 
participation in the sacraments, on the other 
hand, w^as no longer a ''bond and pledge of their 
communion v/ith Christ and with one anotlier, , 
as Tn embers of his mysllcai body;" for they ad 
mitted that d:iose from whom they separated, aixl * 



m 



I 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 73 



whose fellowship they refused, occupied precise- 
ly the same standing, were also members of his 
mystical body. But as acquiescence or non- 
acquiescence in the Burgess' oath was made by 
them respectively the term of communion, it 
followed that between these churches at least, 
the participation of the sacraments, put the "vi- 
sible diftcrence" in that particular respect. That 
alone was judged sufficient to authorize the ^^i- 
sible difference," though in every thing else they 
^ should be perfectly agreed: and by consequence, 
the supper of our Lord v/as by them adminis- 
tered as a ''visible" testimony of their agreement 
in this point. That and that only was the pur- 
pose answered by the sacraments in these in- 
stances, as a mark of '^difference:" but that our 
Lord ever instituted a sacrament to be the mark 
of difference on any such subject, we have never 
yet heard. 

Upon the whole, the inference drawn from a 
statement of the scriptural doctrine of the mys- 
tical union, in the first number of this essay, ap- 
plies in its full force to the subject of commu- 
nion. It is there infered "that it is to no man, 
considered in his individual capacity, but solely 
as a part of the body of Christ, that any of the 
dispensations of God are measured out."* This, 
we have clearly seen, the Apostle Paul makes'to 
be the ground of sacramental communion, the 
point most contested; and all the Apostles, it liias 
been demonstrated, coincided with him in judg-^ 

*No. 1. page 21, 



74 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 



1 



ment, and practised accordingly. By narrou - 
ing this foundation then, by superadding other 
conditions neither named nor acknowledged by 
the x^postles of the Lord, we not only destroy 
the intention of the sacraments, as visible signs 
of difference between the church and the world: 
but, exactly in the spirit of Pharisaic teachers, 
by our traditions we make void the law of God. 
We impose conditions \^hich God never im- 
posed: we cut off those whom the Lord hath re- 
ceived: <md by screwing up the standard of at- 
tainments to very high degrees of knowledge in 
the mysteries of the faith, we avowedly cut out 
the weaklings of the flock, and consent that 
babes in knowledge shall ^oerish w^ith the world. 
It is in vain to object to this representation of 
the matter, that other churches have their sepa- 
rate communions too; and that these severally 
distinguish them from the world, as ours do us; 
and that they receive moreover in the character 
of * 'strong men" the very persons whom we 
judge to be weak, if we admit their christian 
character at alL But does this alter the thing! 
Dofs it release you from the charge, of refusing 
to receive *'them that are weak in the faith," as 
the Lord hath given commandment? Does it 
free either of you from the charge of destroying, 
the Visible distinction which the sacraments were 
designed to keep up^ when you do refuse to ad- 
mit another to communion, and so, visibly, do 
c6afouiid one another with the world/' Each of 
yo^i indeed may thus distinguish your own mem- 
■iiers from the world; but do you not both refuse 



THTE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 75 

to distinguish other n. embers from the same 
world? and is it not such refusal, according to 
the declared intention of the sacraments, a con- 
founding one another with the world? 

The only question of any kind of importance 
is, whether we are bound to believe that other 
denominations are parts of the christian church; 
and their members, members of Christ's body. 
It is certainly little to the credit of the Wes- 
tern world, that there are in it numbers who 
really need the proof oi this point. But as we 
are persuaded of the fact, a neglect to discuss 
this very wonderful .controversy would be to 
brave unnecessarily the danger of losing all our 
previous labour. Here, however, we shall not, 
as formerly, appeal ''to the law and to the tC^tU 
mony/^ For certainly it is only a disregard of 
that ^'sure word of prophecy," and an amazing 
propensity to build every thing upon ''the tra- 
ditions of the fathers," that could incline any 
man to doubt whether his own church be not 
the only true church, and christians of his own 
denomination the only true christians. Any man 
who directs his judgment by the word of God, 
who reflects upon what little and what various 
degrees of light, men formed their profession 
(incontrovertibly a sound profession) in apos- 
tolic times; any man who lays to heart what it 
really is that constitutes a christian in scriptural 
judgment; any such man will at once perceive, 
that there is light enough in very many denomi- 
nations to lead men to ihe Saviour; and if he is 
disposed to judge them according to their fruits, 



76 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

he will, in innuirer.Lble instances, be compelled 
to acknowledge in.it they really have been there. 
It is that leaven of Phariseeisni, that disposition 
to put the doctrine and ordinances of the New 
Testament church upon the very same footing 
on which the Jewish doctors placed the law ot 
Moses, that creates the whole difficulty upon 
this subject. And there are men among us suffi- 
ciently ignorant and impudent to avow their be- 
lief, that all who do not walk according to the 
traditions received by them and their church, 
that is, according to Dr. Such-an- one's exposi- 
tion of matters, are ipso facto convicted of a false 
profession; of being no better than Pharisees.- — 
To the traditions of the fathers^ then, let the ap- 
peal be made. These very fathers whom you 
professloTollow,^and in V\"hGirx you glory, dif- 
fer as mucli from your views in this point, as 
they will be found, upon examination, to do in 
almost every other. Hear the fathers! Hear Tho- 
mas Boston! "Those who confine their love to 
a party, to whom God has not confined Ins grace, 
are souls too narrow to be put among the chil- 
dren. In what points soever men diffii^r from 
us, in their judgment or way; yet if they appear 
to agree with us in love to God, and our Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ, and in bearing his image, we 
will love them as brethren, if we ourselves be 
of the heavenly family." Bostori^s Fourfold 
State. State nu Headi. Use i. Hear the fathers! 
Hear Dr. Owen! His single name is a host. In 
his sermon before the Parliament, relative to their 
dutv in buildin*? uu Zion, he notices and thus 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 



t i 



answers the following objecdcn: "But it will b^ 
Siid, we are still at a los^; for what woful divi- 
sions are there atnong the generaticn of profes- 
sors? Some are for one way, and some for ano- 
thcr; some say the Prelacists are so, sonie the 
Presbyterians/some the Indcpcndant, some tl e 
Anabaptists, some the Fifh Mon-rchv-mcn, 
so ne others: and on whom should the valuation 
pleaded for be cast?'' The Dr 's answer is as lo'- 
lows: *-Somed6say so, and plead thus, it c:ir-r 
not be denied; but the truth is, the greater is therr 
weakness and folly. It is impossible inep ac- 
quainted with the spirit of God and with the gcs- 
pel should say so^ unless they were under the 
power of one temptation or another. But it is 
no parti/, but the party of Christ, in the world 
and against the world, the seed of the woman 
against the seed of the serpent, that I am plead- 
ing for; that men as to their interest in Christ^ 
should be judged from such denominations, as 
though they make a gi^eat noise in the world, 
signify very little things in themselves, is most 
unrighteous and unequal; nor will men find 
peace in such rash and precipitate judgments. 
There may be many divisions among the peo- 
ple of God, and yet none of them be divided 
from Christ the head. The branches of a tree 
may be entangled by strong winds, and striken 
against one another, and yet none of them be 
broken off from the tree itselt^ and when the 
storm is over, every one possesses its own place 
in quietness, beauty, and fruitfulness. Whilst 
tlie strong winds of temptation are upon the foK 

G 2 



78 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULT^. 

lowers of Christ, they maybe tossed and entang- 
led; but not being broken off from the root, 
when he shall say to ihe winds, be stilly they 
ivili flourish again in peace and beauty. Let 
not Satan cheat you of your duty by this trivial 
objection. If he can keep you from duty whilst 
he can make divisions, he hath you sure enr)ugh. 
They of whom I speak, be they under what re- 
proach or obloquies soever, they are all true men, 
all the children of one father, though they are 
imhappily iallen out by the wa}^'' The glory 
and interest of nations: a sermon on Isa. iv. 5. 
Htar him again, ''Some men think that n®ne 
are righteous that are not of their principles; than 
which principle there is nothing more unrighte- 
ous. Let tlum that differ from them walk ne- 
ver so holily^ profess never so strictly; yet if they 
are not of their mind, they are not righteous. If 
men are offended on such accounts, it is because 
they will be so." Same sermon. 

Once more hear Dr. Owen; he is speaking of 
the injury which the church of God at large en- 
dured, through the selfish zeal of every one of 
the sectaries above-mentioned to exalt them- 
selves above the other denominations. ''Every 
one, if not personally } et in association with 
them of some ptculiar persuasion with himself, 
would be the head; and because they are not, 
they conclude they are not of the body^ nor will 
care for the body, but rather endeavour its ruin. 
Because dieir ptculiar interest doth not reign, 
ihe common interest shaii be dispisedj and this 
hath been the temper or rather di^temper^ of the 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 79 

people of God in this nation now for sundry 

vears. Unless God end this frame, my ex- 

nectations I confess of a happy issue of the great 
work of God, will wither day by day." God^s 
vork in founding Zion: a sermon on ha. xiv. 32, 
Were it not a waste of pages that may be 
better occupied, and an abuse of the more in- 
telligent reader's patience, we might add scores 
-nd hundreds of passages to the same amount. 
But really the man who is so full of his own te- 
^lets, and so eager against those of his neighbour, 
as to require proof that the church of God is 
composed of a great many denominations be- 
sides his own, does not deserve this atteircion: he 
carries about him vm' strong symptoms of being 
a Pharisee; and the really intelligent christian 
Avill be apt to suspect the soundness of his faith, 
a great dccJ sooner than that of his more hum- 
ble adversaries, who may make a much less 
sound profession. Father Boston has said, that 
such men have souls too narrow to be put among 
the children Dr. Owen thought it impossible 
that such characters could be acquainted with 
the spirit of God, and with the gospel; unless, 
indeed, their perverse opinion might be account- 
ed for from the influence of strong temptation. 
The apostle Paul would have said, that such a 
man '4s proud, knowing nothing, but doting, 
about questions and strifes of Mords, whereof 
Cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,'' 
&.C. To these great authorities we most cor- 
dially buw; and therefore add nothing further, in 
proof of the position, but the declared judgment 



^0 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS, 

of the AVcstminster Assembly, who say ia tlieir 
Confession (chap. xxv^. sec. 2 and 4) that "the 
visible church, which is also Catholic con- 
sists of all those throughout the world that pro- 
fcss the true religion." And that ^'particular 
churches, which are members thereof, are more 
or less pure, according as the doctrine of the 
gosple is taught and embraced, ordinances ad- 
ministered, and public worship performed more 
or less piu^ely in them." Such then was the 
view of Owen; such the view of the reverend 
assembly which sat in the age of Dr. Owen.-^ — 
A list of the most important sects into which 
the English churches were at that time divided, 
is given in tlie first quotation. And if it shall 
be said, that the sectaries then vrere far les^ cor- 
rupt than those among us, and their subjects of 
contention far more frivolous; if this shall be 
said in order to justify a refusal to recognize the 
modern sections of the church as christian — 
we have only to deny the fact, and to say with 
Dr. Owen, from a sermon already quoted, "you 
seldom see a man take up a bye-opinion, but he 
instantly lays more weight upon it than upon all 
religion besides. If that be not enthronedy be it 
a matter of never so small importance, he scarce 
cares what becomes of all other truths which he 
doth embrace." And in this way we may fairly 
account for the superlative importance that eachr 
man, and each sect, is in the habit of attaching ta 
the error, real or supposed, which they^rt in the 
liabit of confronting. But away with this shame- 
fi;l controversy, *'That which hold$ the head^^^] 



r 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. tO 



says Dr. Owen, 'Uhat is the church; that which 
doth not so, is no church at all." And if in the 
application of this plain rule, a man cannot find 
out to what denomination he may extend his fel- 
lowship, they will certainly lose little by his miss- 
ing the discovery. 

Two points then have been sufficiently ascer- 
tained: 1st. That all the communion of the 
members of Christ is founded upon the fact 
of their constituting one body; and, therefore, 
that this communion should of rio:ht be extend- 
ed, ''as God ofFereth opportunity," to all who 
afford evidence — the ordinary evidence of their 
being (j/' the body: And 2dly. That the mem- 
bers of Christ are to be found in various dena- 
mmations, and are not confined to OUR OWN, 
whatever that be. It follovrs, as a consequence^ 
that the communion of saints Is not to be re- 
stricted to a single denomination, but to be ex- 
tended to ''all those who in every place call upon 
the name of the Lord Jesus," to whatever party 
they may be more immediately attached; provid- 
ed only, that it be done to edification. This 
conclusion, however consonant to scripture and 
the standards of almost all the Presbyterian 
churches (and, for ought we know, of ^//of them), 
is nevertheless known to be at war with modern 
practice. It cannot therefore be wondered at, 
that it should be at war with the peoples' preju- 
dices; and that multitudes of objections should 
be urged against it. To the most imposing of 
those objections it will be doubtless proper to 
'\ttend. Not, however, at present. They must 



82 THE BC DY OF CHRISt.—RESULTS, 

be reserved for discussion in a future number. — 
Probably the most formidable and general oppo- 
sition that has been raised to the principles above 
defended, is to be ascribed to the very common 
apprehension of their novelty. It looks like a 
leaving the ^*good old way," and treading unex- 
plored paths; or at least paths that have not been 
explored until lately, and that by a people who 
it is generally known flung open their gates to 
every kind of error and abomination, at the very 
same time that they left them open to a promis- 
cuous communion. That such has been the 
fact in our quarter of the world, is beyond a 
doubt. But it is a mistake to imagine that false 
doctrine will necessarily attend the practice of a 
mixed communion: and it is yet a rnofe palpa- 
ble mistake to suppose that the party alluded' to 
were the firsts who practised it. We plead for 
no extention of it to the members of churches 
that do not *'hold the head;" unless their indivi- 
dual title be individually made out: we plead 
for it, not as a novel practice, but as alike the 
doctrine and the practice of the church during 
all her best and purest ages; as the doctrine and 
practice of the Westminster fathers, and West- 
minster age; as a doctrine and practice that have 
only been lost during the squabbles and dark. 
ness of far later times. And with the proof of 
this point we shall close our present number. 

That such was really the doctrine of West- 
minster divines, must, we think, appear to every^ 
person who does not suffer his judgement to be 
warped in construing the language of their con^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 83 

/ fession. They tell /isible church 

Catholic consists of paiujui.ir churches, some 
more and some kbs pure in doctrine, ordinances 
and worship, (chap, xxv.) Now^ undoubtedly 
these ''particular churches,'^ more or less pure, 
consisted of ''saints by profession." And they 
tell us, in their chapter on the communion of 
saints, that ^'saints by profession are bound to 
maintain a holy fellowship and communion in 
the worsliip of God/' Sec. They also tell us, 
that this communion *'is to be extended unto all 
those who in every place call upon the name of 
the Lord Jesus." And the ground of such com- 
munion with all saints^ is stated in the first sec- 
tion of that chapter. They are the same that 
were shewn in the beginning of this num.ber to 
be the scriptural grounds: i. e. that all saints 
are united to Jesus Christ the head; have fellow- 
ship with him in his graces, sufferings, &c. "and 
being united to one another in love, they have 
communion in each others gifts and graces, and 
are obliged to the performance of such duties, 
public and private, as do conduce to their mu- 
tual good, both in the inward and outward man." 
It will doubtless require great expertness to work 
this into a consistency v;ith the doctrine, that 
communion of saints /'or christian communion! J 
is to be restricted to what Dr. Owen calls a par- 
ticular persuasion. 

But let us hear the Savoy divines, let us hear 
Dr. Owen express his opinion of the sentiment 
intended to be conveyed by the Westminster 
\ssembly. The Independents having obtaine<^ 



34 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS, 

liberty of Oliver Cromwell to publish an uni- 
form confession of their faith, met for this pur- 
pose at the Savoy, on the 12th of October, 1658; 
which was only ten years and eight months after 
the Westminster Assembly had concUided their 
labours. At the head of this meeting were 
Drs. John Owen and Thomas Goodwin. These 
were the most celebrated divines of the Inde- 
pendent persuasion; and the Presbyterians of the 
day said that they managed every thing. These 
two, together with Philip Nye, Joseph Caryl, 
William Bridges, and William Greenhill, form- 
ed the committee by which the articles of their 
confession were drafted. No man in his senses 
will doubt their competency to ascertain the 
meaning of the Westminster Assembly's article 
on communion, when it is recollected that they 
lived at the very time of its being drafted, and 
maintained habitual intercourse with the mem- 
bers of that Assembly. In fact, two of this very 
committee had been members of the Westmin- 
ster Assembly, viz. Dr. Goodwin and Philip 
Nye. So also had been several others of the 
Independent divines. They had, therefore, every 
opportunity of understanding what was meant 
by the Assembly's article on the point before 
us. Nov/ hear Mr. Ncale, their historian, and 
himself a divine of the Independent church. — 
*'The Savoy confession proceeds upon the plan 
of the Westminster Assembly, which made the 
work very easy; and in most places retains their 
words. They tell the world in their preface, that 
they fully consent to the Westminster confession. 



i HE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. §5 

)for the substance of it, but have taken liberty to 
add a few things, in order to obviate some er- 
roneous opinions that have been more boldly 
maintiiincd of late than in former times. They 
have likev/ise varied the method in some places, 
and have here and there expressed themselves 
more clearly, as they found occasion.*' Mr, 
Neale goes on to tell us that they rejected, as 
might be expected, the Assembly's articles re- 
lative to church government: but that "upon 
the whole, the difference betv/een these two con^ 
fessionsin point of doctrine is so very small, that 
the modern Independents have in a manner laid 
aside the use of it in their families.*' Here then 
we nave the Savoy Assembly's ovvm declaration 
of their agreement with the substance of the 
Westminster confession, except in point of go- 
vernment and matters connected with it. This 
they stated in their preface. They, however, 
took the liberty of expressing these sentiments 
in then' own words, whensoever they thought it 
might be done more clearly. And, as has been 
said. Dr. Owen was one of the six who drafted 
the articles; and together with Dr. Goodwin, was 
said to have managed the Assembly as he pleas* 
cd. So says my author, though he treats it as 
an aspersion of the other venerable men who sat 
v/ith them. Now hear what they had to say 
on the doctrine of communion. ''Churches con- 
sisting of persons sound in the faith, and of good 
0(iiiversc;tion, ought not to refuse communion with 
each other, though they walk not in all things ac- 
<^ording to the same rule of church order; and if 



36 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

they judge other churches to be true churches 
though less pure, they may receive to occasional 
communion such members of those churches as 
are credibly testified to be godly, and to live Murfi- 
out offence." 

The beJjig godly ^ the living without offenc^^ 
then, was in the iudQ:ment of the Savov divines 
the proper term of communion, and whoever 
bore this character oup-ht to be admitted, thoui^h 
they were tnembers of churches "less pure," — 
What sort of churches they were, that Dr. Owen , 
allow^ed to be 'Hrue churches," and the mem- 
bers of these * 'children of the same father," has 
been already shewn. The foregoing statement 
needs no remarks. It sufficiently establishes 
the points that the Independents, at the head of 
whom were such men as Owen, Goodwin, Nye, 
Caryl, Buroughs, &c. &c. held the doctrine un. 
der consideration; and also that in their judg- 
ment the Westminster Assembly held and hud 
declared the very same. The reader, if he pleases, 
may examine this document at large, in Neah^s 
hiatcry of the Puritans^ Protectorate of Crom- 
zvell^ Anno 1658. 

But as the great difficulty seems to be the de- 
cision of the question what are fundamentals in | 
the christian religion; and as everj' sectary is in- j 
clined to make the particular point by which • 
his church is distinguished a fundamental; it . 
may not be amiss to put the reader in posession \ 
of another document, which will serve to shew 
vvlrat was the opinion of the Westminster age ' 
OpQU that subject, and may therefore help to 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 87 

oiipply an an::>\ver to the Inquiry, Avhat churches 
are sufficiently pure to be recognized as parts 
of the church of Christ? — In the year 1658, the 
£«glish parliament appointed a committee te 
"nominate certain divines to draw up a cata- 
logue of fundamentals^ to be presented to the 
house," Fourteen divines were nominated, only 
eleven of whom, however^ acted. They were, 
"Dr. Owen, Dr. Goodwin, Tk. Cheynel, Mr. 
Baxter, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Reyner, Mr. Nye, 
Mr. Sydrach Simpson, Mr. Vines, Mr. Manton, 
Mr. Jacomb." The articles presented by them^ 
and fortified by a multitude of scripture proofs, 
were as follow: 

"1. That the holy scripture is that rule of 
knowing God and of living unto him, which 
ivhoso does not believe cannot be saved. 

2. That there is a God, who is the creator, 
governor and judge of the world, which is to be 
received by faith, and every other way of the 
knowledge of him is insufficient. 

3. That this God, who is the creator, is etcr- 
nally distinct from all creatures, in being and 
blessednesss. 

4. That this God is one, in three persons or 
subsistences. 

5. That Jesus Christ is the only mediator 
between God and man, without the knowledge 
of v/hom there is no salvation. 

6. That this Jesus Christ is the true God. 

7. That this Jesus Christ is also true man. 

8. That this Jesus Christ is God and man in 
onG person. 



83 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— KESULTb, 

9. That this Jesus Christ is our redeemer, 
who by paying a ransom, and bearing our sins, 
has made satisfaction for them. 

10. That this same Lord Jesus Christ is he 
that was crucified at Jerusalem, and rose again 
and ascended into heaven. 

11. That this same Jesus Christ, being the 
only God and man in one person, remains forever ; 
a distinct person from all saints and angels, not- 
\vithstanding their union and communion witli 
him. 

12. That all men by nature are dead in sins 
and trespasses; and no man can be saved miless 
he be born again, repent and believe. , J 

13. That we are justified and saved by grace 
and faith in Jesus Christ, and not by works. 

14. That to continue in any known sin, upon 
what pretence or principle soever, is damnable. 

15. That God is to be worshipped according 
to his own will; and whosoever shall despise and 
forsake all the duties of his worship cannot be 
saved. 

16. Thc^t the dead shall rise: and that there 
is a day of judgment, wherein all shall appear, 
some to go into everlasting life, and some into 
everlasting condemnatton.'' 

;Mr. Baxter w^ho was one of the committee, 
says that Dr. Owen worded these articles; and 
that Dr. Goodwin and Messrs. Nye and Simp- 
son were his assistants. My author remarks 
:]at there were sonie otiier articles in addition to 
he above, or at least that it was so said; but that 
U:cse vrere all which v;crc tcfbe founri ^''^ ^'^-^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— liESULTS. 89 

printed account possessed by him, which ac- 
count, he rennarks, was licensed by authority. — 
On this view^ of christian fundamentals, we uQcd. 
make no remarks. Every christian reader will 
perceive that they are really such; and will per- 
haps be surprised to learn that some of the com- 
mittee thought them too specific and numerous 
to be imposed as a list of christian fundamen^ 
tals. Let the reader now recollect that these 
were drawn up several years after the Westmin- 
ster Assembly had finished its work, and by 
men too, several of w horn had been members of 
that Assembly, and all of whom admitted the 
soundness of its doctrines, except in point of go- 
vernment. For though this exhibition was not 
properly a judicial declaration of what is to be 
considered as fundamental in christian doctrine, 
though it was drawn up at the command of par- 
liament to answer their special purpose, yet it is 
no less serviceable in proving what really w^as 
the judgment of the Westmanster age upon that 
point. 

As a further proof that the doctrine of inter- 
communion was admitted in those days, it may 
be observed that the Westminster Assembly 
sat, not as a church court, but as a council to^ 
aid the parliament in the establishment of a na- 
tional religion. For in those days the churches 
had not got clear of the ruinous opinion that' 
every nation should have a particular form estab- 
lished by law, to the exclusion of all others. 

The Assembly of course mo^'ed for the estab- 
lishment of the Presbyterian scheme; and this 

r 9. 



90 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

Step was likely to involve Independents, Prelatists^ 
and all others in the pains and penalties of the* 
civil law. The Independents remonstrated a- 
gainst so harsh a measure, and plead at least for 
a toleration. Among other things they agreed 
that "they would hold occasional communion 
with the Presbyterian churches, in baptism and 
the Lord's supper, communicating occasionally 
with diem, and receiving their members to com- 
munion as occasion required. Their ministers 
should preach for each other, and in cases of dif- 
ficulty they would call in their assistance and ad» 
vice.^' Only they besought that Prsebyterianism 
might not be established in such a manner as to 
expose them and other denominations to the 
same process of fine, imprisonment, banishment, 
8tc. &c. that had formerly been carried on by 
Ae bishops. NeaVs Hist. Purit. Charles L 
Anno I $45. 

In conformity with these declared principles, 
the churches, whether Presbyterian, Independ- 
ent or Prelatical, acted. This it would be easy 
to shew by an induction of particulars. But as 
this article bias been already extended to an un- 
reasonable length, and as we profess only to be 
writing an essay> not a book, this part of our 
undertaking must be waved. Let it therefore 
suffice to n^ention in general, that while no in- 
stance can be found of a Presbyterian, or Inde- 
pendent congregation refusing to admit a pious 
Episcopalian, even at the time when the Episco- 
pal church was persecuting them; so on the 
other hand there are instances innumerable c?f 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. SI 

pious Presbyterians and Independents joining 
I occasionally iii the communion of the Episcopal 
churches, when it might be done under circum- 
stances that did not compel them to practice any 
of those rites against which they objected as un- 
lawful.* In fact this was a thing so usual, that 
in the year 1689, when the high church had re- 
gamed all her power, she obtained an act of par- 
liament prohibiting the practice: not because it 
was deemed a breach of christian oider; but be- 
cause such act would enable them npore certain- 
ly to discriminate who were non-conformists, in 
order that they might gratify their hate by pro- 
ceeding against them according to law. Neals 
Hist. Pur. FTilliatn and Mary. Anno 16S9.t 
, To the practice of holding communion with 
the church of England in those days, it must, 
however, be acknowledged that a great portion 
of the Puritans objected. Among them was 
Dr. Owen, who wrote expressly against it. But 
the reasons of dissent were not grounded on the 
unlawfulness of the principle^ {or that ^ we have 
shewn, was on all hands admitted. The objec- 
tions were solely directed against the church of 
England, as then established by law; and were 
grounded partly upon the immeasurable evils 
she was then inflicting upon dissenters of every 
name, excepting Catholics; and partly upon her 
mixing a multitude of Popish rites with all her 
public services: in fact, she appeared to be fast 
hastening back to Popery, and was marking her 
*See note A at the end of this nuuiber, 
t Sw note B at the end of this number 



92 THE BODY OP CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

course with idolatry and blood. This was rear-^ 
son enough, one would think, tor abstaining from 
her communion. 

We have been thus particular relative to the 
Westminster age, because it is generally, and in- 
deed not very improperly,^ looked upon as the 
touch- stone of orthodoxy. During the ages which 
preceded it, the practice was common: the prin- 
ciple^ so far as we have learned, was never called 
in question. Though indeed, it is only of latter 
ages that the churches have been accustomed ta 
split themselves up into fragments and sections, 
on account of difterences of opinion: Formerly^ 
they could differ about matters of minor conse- 
quence, and even maintain long and arduous con- 
troversies, without thinking it needful to testify 
their zeal by quitting their church connexions. 
This is an improvement almost peculiar to these 
ages of the church, the character of which IS dis- 
tinguished in the Revelation of John by the face 
of a man: and undoubtedly there is too much of 
the man about It. But of this more hereafter. 

That such has been the practice, and such the 
principles of the church of Scotland, subsequent 
to the Westminster ago, is very susceptible of 
proof Were it not so, they must have deserted 
the principles of their fathers, to whch they still 
profess adherence. We will however, tax the 
patience of the reader with but one proof upon 
this point. In Mr. Boston's valuable sermon 
upon the sin of schism, which was levelled' 
against the originators of that denomination 
Itnown amoijg us as Covenamcrs; he notices it as 



w^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 93 



an evidence of thtir schismatical spirit, that they: 
^'refuse communion with us (i. e. the establisli- 
ed church of Scotland,) in ordinances, unless it 
be at some times to serve a turn." Now, it is 
plain, that had not the doctrine of communion^ 
as here defended and as held by the fathers, been 
maintained both by these Covenanters, and by 
the church of Scotland, at that time, Mr. Bos- 
ton could have had no room for speaking as he 
did. For neither would these Covenanters have 
dared to violate their church order, at a moment 
when they were just taking a start and profess- 
ing great purity; nor could the church of Scot- 
land have w inked at their occasional communion^ 
designed, as is said above, merely to serve a turn. 
But the fact is, that the principle was always re- 
cognized, was always practised uTpon, even by the 
Scotish churches; and though objections were 
often made to it by some, yet the opposition 
never was systematized till after the Secession 
churches divided among themselves. Before this 
period they v/ere in the habit of communing, 
when occasion served, with tlie ministers and 
people of the established church from which they 
had seceded; and of admitting the members of 
the latter to their communion. But when they 
armed themselves for combat as Burgers and 
Anti Burgers, and in the plenitude of their zeal 
refused to commune w^ith one another, they 
found themselves obliged to extend the princi- 
pie for consistency's sake, and so refused com- 
munion with all denominations. But even at 
this dav all their churches do .not carry out th^ 



94 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

principle, but many of them, both ministers and 
people, do practice occasional communion; 

But enough has been said upon this point,— 
Enough to satisfy any unbiassed mind that it 
was the doctrine of the fathers as well as of the 
Apostles, that in consequence of a common re- 
lation to God the Saviour, christians are bound 
to maintain tfie communion proper to his mem- 
bers: and that they are called upon to do so, as a 
bond andpledgeef their mystical commumon; not in 
testimony of their agreement in a scheme of doc- 
trines. It is,, we repeat it, the communion of the 
Redeemer'^s members with himself and among 
themselves; and no man may refuse it to anotlier 
christian man, no man may impose such terms 
of communion as are calculated to shut out the 
most weak and ignorant of his master's flock, 
without the hazard of being judged for that of- 
fence, the imputation of whicli Peter was so anxi- 
ous to avoid* 



NOTES ON No. IV, 



Jv'ote A. Pa^-e 91. 



We will here give instances of occasional comnau- 
nion as practised by the churches severally. Nothing 
but the want of roonn prevented our doing this in the 
first impression of this essay. 

] . j^ Presbyterian. — In Neale's notices af the death 
of eminent noa-confonnist ministers under the year 
>G335 v/e fi'id among, others the following. **Mr. Set- 






'CHE BODY OF CHRIST,— REbULTS. 95 

puel Clark, the ejected minister of St. Bennct Fink, 

j\yas an indefatigable student, &c. ; he was one of 

the commissioners of the Savoy, and presented the 
Presbyterian ministei's address of thanks to the kin^ 
for his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs; 
and though he could not conform as a preacher, he 
frequently attended the service of the church as a hear- 
er and cotnmunicant. He died Dec. 25, 1632, in the 
80lh year of his age." 

2. Lidtfu' 71 dents. — In addition to the evidence alrea- 
dy furnished with respect to this sect, we sul^join an 
extract from an apologetical narration presented to the 
English parliament by five of them who were mem- 
bers of the Westminster Assembly. The extract in- 
deed specifies no individual instance of the practice in 
question; but it states that even during their previous 
banishment in Holland, when they could of course en- 
tertain no motive either of fear or hope, their princi- 
ples led them to extend communion to members of the 
English hierarchy through whose influence they had 
been banished, as well as to the Hollanders among 
whom they were, and who certainly stood remote from 
ihe doctrine of independency. The passage is as fol- 
lows: '*As to the church of England, wc profess be- 
fore God and the world, that *;vc do apprehend a great 
I -deal of defilement in their way of worship, and a great 
f deal of unwarranted power exercised by their church 
p-overnors; yet we allow multitudes of their parochial 
churches to be true churches, and their ministers true 
ministers. In the late times, when i:>c had no hofics 
^ of returning to our oiun country^ we held communion 
\ with them and offered to receive to the Lord's supper 
some that came to visit us in our exile, whom we knew 
to be godly, upon that relation and membership they 
held in their p .rish churches in England, they prol'css- 
ing themselves to be members thereof, and belonging 
thereto. The same charitable disposition we main- 
tained towards the Dutcii churches among whom vio, 
lived. Wc mutually gave and received the rjgWt hand 
of fellowship;*' (the Dutch c'lurches, be it remem- 
bered, were Prcsbvtenan)^ ^'holdij;/]: a brother! v cor- 

1^ 



§6 THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 

respondence with the divines, and adniitting seme oV 
the members of their churches to communion in the. 
sacrament, and other ordinances, by virtue of their re- 
lation to these churches.'* J^ealc's Hist, Piir, Charles 
]. 1643. 

The paper of which the above is an extract was 
signed by Dr. Thomas Goodwin and Messrs. Simpson, 
Nye, Burroughs and Bridi»-es, ail members of the West- 
minster x\ssembly. Strange indeed if they should have 
at that time made such an avowal to conciliate their 
opponents, if the Assembly and parliament had held a 
different sentiment with respect to the communion of 
saints! 

3. Efiisccfialians. — Of Dr. Thomas Wilson, bishop 
of Soder and Man, a contempora y of the long-iived 
heroes of the Westminster school, it is said that "with 
regard to the riglits of conscience in others he exer- 
cised the most candid and benevolent moderation. He 
admitted dissenters to the holy communion, and admi- 
nister ^d it to them, either sitting or standing, as they 
themselves approved. Buck's Miscellaneous^ ivorks^ 
'i>oL 1. pMge 3 SO. 

Should the reader think it^ surprising that Vv e read 
or hear so little ^f this occasional communion in for- 
mer ages, if it were admitted and practised as here 
contended for; he has but to recollect that a principle 
to which all subscribed, and upon which ail occasion- 
ally acted, never coul*^ assume such importance as to 
be often mentioned in ages when points of difference, 
not those of agreement, occupied almost all the j 
thoughts and industry of writers of all parties. This 
was locked upon as a small thing, as a thmg of course; 
and even in those cases in which it does happen to be ' 
noticed, it is for the most part incidentally, as might be ,' 
expected of a matter about which there was no dis- ^ 
pute, nor any factitious interest excited in the churches. i 

The universality of tliis view however, must be stat* ' 
ed with ^ome iiule ^i^ception. For not only Roman 
Catholics, to whom, as a body, few Protestants f?el 
disposed to aiiow the title of christian, but the Ana- 
baptists also rejected the diffusive communion here 



m 



1 HE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. ^ - 



fiaintaincd; and were for restrictini^ christian feliow- 

liip to their own denomination. This was the case 

lot only with those wild and turbulent fanatics who 

prun,^ up in Germany about the time of the reforma- 

ion, but likewise with the English Anabaptists of the 

'Vestminster age; a people precisely the same in prin- 

iple with the Baptists of our ov/n day. Mr. Neale 

nentions the refusal of this sect to hold communion 

vlth the other orderly ones then existing in England, 

(viz: Episcopalians, Independents and Presbyterians), 

and .itates that this unseemly civniage towards their 

brethren of other denominations was one great reason 

of their being treated with peculiar severity. These 

are his words: *'The people of this persuasion were 

more exposed to the public resentment, because they 

vrould hold communion with none but such as had been 

dipped." Hint. Fur, Anno 1646. 

Upon these specimens the reader must be left to 
make his own reflections. 



J\^ote B. pa^^c 91. 

The statement contained in this sentence is inaccu- 
rate both in point of date and matter of fact. The re- 
^ rence was made six or eight months after the pass- 
age had been read, and without any recurrence to it at 
the time of wriiing, except merely for the purpose of 
ascertaining the date as indicated at the head of the 
page. The shame of this carelessness the writer must 
therefore take upon himself. But though the statement 
be inaccurate in both of the respects mentioned, the 
proof of the position contended for will lose nothing of 
its force by a correction of the errors; as must appear 
from the following corrected account of the passage 
rcfered to in Neale. 

1 . With respect to the date. The act in question :* 
spoken of by Neale under the year refered to; and it 
was this that lead to the incorrectness of the statement 
as it respects the date. But Neale's history ends with 
that year; and he merely glances at the subsequent act 
of parliament as z, thing by which dissenters were ufter^ 



98 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

Tjards uncharitably and unjustly di'^^tressed, in defi- 
ance of the act of toleration of 1689 by which their re- 
religious liberties had been confirmed to them. It 
"Was under the succeeding reign of queen Anne that 
the bill against occasional conformity was passed; and 
it was not till the latter end of 1711, twenty-two years 
after the period at which Neale concludes his histoiy 
that it passed into a law, having stuck by the way ses- 
sion after session for a considerable number of years, 
i. e. from the accession of Anne in 1702. 

2. This act, Neale says, was ushered into theworld 
^•underthe specious title of an act to firescrzw the firo^ 
ttstavA reli^eon^ and to confirm the toleratiok, 
and further to secure the prolestant rcligeon.^^ But its 
intention and tendency was to cut off all dissenters 
from the established church of England from holding 
any office of honor or emolument under the government. 
The dissenters, it should b€ known, were among the 
best friends of the revolution by which the succession 
of Papists to the throne of England had been prevent- 
ed, and the protestant religeon secured. Accordingly 
they stood high, perhaps highest^ in the esteem of 
William and Mary, and enjoyed without difficulty a 
Tast number of places under the government. It was 
however provided by a starute oi'25ih Car. II. 'Hhat all 
persons bearing any office of trust or profit, shall tr/kc 
the otuhs of supr^^miicy and allegiance in open court, 
ann shall also receive the sacrament of the Lord's sup- 
per, according to the usage of the church of England^ 
in soTiie parish church, on some Lord's day immedi- 
attiv after divine service," &c. Hist. Pur. Charles IL 
1673, 

Trds act remains in force to this day, and fortified 
as it was with numerous and severe penalties, no dis- 
senter from the established worship could venture upon 
the most inconsiderable office without first holding oc- 
casional comm.union with the episcopal church. This 
hov/ever created no difficulty. They often did so with- 
out any such motive— did so from principle; and the 
reqyioion of this service could be no burden to a non- 
conformist who sought an office linder goYernmeht',— 



■i\ 



n 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 99 



L 



rfiUT — the act against occasional conformity ordained 
that ''if any pt^rsons in office, who by the laws are o- 
bliged to qualify themselves by receiving the sacra 
Client or test, shall cvtr resort to a conventicle crmtet- 
ing of dissenters for religeous ivorshifi^ during the. 
time of their continuance in such office, they shall for- 
feit twenty pounds for every such offence, and be dis- 
qualified for any office for the future, till they have 
made oath that they have entirely conformed to the 
church, and not been at any conventicle for the space 
of a whole year." ''So that no person'* says Neule, "iu 
the least office in the custom^ excise^ or commo7i'Cou?i- 
cily Sec. could ever enter the doors of a meeting bouse.'* 

However specious the title then, Nealc tells us that 
the act in question was made for the purpose of ex- 
cluding from all offices all dissenters from the church 
of England. And all persons at that time in office 
were either compelled to resign their posts or to quit 
all connexion with dissenting churches. As com nu- 
nion with the church of England was indispensable 
to the possession of the smallest office, and had been so 
from the days of Charles II., the reader will at once 
perceive that the number whose principles did not lead 
them to refuse occasional communion with that church, 
must have been immense indeed, otherwise it never 
could have been an object worth a nine years labour to 
get them thus removed. 

But further: The fact that the act in question is cal- 
led an act against occasional conformity (i. e. occasion- 
al communion) while at the same time occasiorjal con- 
formity is no where so much as mentioned in it, de- 
cides as much as volumes of instances could do. By 
occasional communion (i. e. coiiforiiiity) dissenters 
qualified themselves for holding offices. This act is 
designed to force them fully into the church or to cul 
them off from all offices from the highest to the lowest, 
whether civil or military; and is stiled '*an act ai^ainst 
occisional conformity." Then the principles of dis- 
senters must have admitted sucli conformitv, or it 
would have been an unmeaning title: then too they 
must have been in the habit of practising this occav.- 



onal conformity, or it v/ould have been an act withou 
an object. But let the labours of a nine years effort to 
get it througii the parliament and under the royal seal, 
attest how vast the object it was intended by church- 
ir.en to accomplish. And let the complaints of the pu- 
ritanical histori?.n instruct us how wide must have been 
its devastation. And let ihe reasoning reader thence 
ronclude how extensive must have been the princi- 
ples and practice of occasional communion. And all 
this v/hile yet many of the Westminster fathers had 
hardly Iai<l their heads beneath the sod, and some of 
the worthies of that period were unquestionably vet 
alive! 

Though therefore the precise object of the act in 
question was indistinctly remembered, and incorrectly 
stated in the foregoing essay, yet the reader will at 
once perceive that the sentiment in question lose« no- 
thing of its proof by a particular and correct recital of 
the circumstances of the case. The church and par- 
liament intended it to operate against occasional com- 
munion; they have even called it an act against it; the 
dissenters understood and felt the force of it as such. 
And though it could not extend to the prosecution of 
private persons, it cast out at once every dissenter who 
held a post of any description under government, and 
must have reduced many thousands to the greatesv 
straits. 



NO. V. 

RESULTS. 

It is novel, it is a departure from ''the loot- 
steps of the ftock" — He must be a stranger to 
himself, he must be a stranger to the human 
heart, as it unfolds its character in the world at 
large, who does not at once see, that the objec- 



-! 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 101 



tlion we luive named may be opposed with more 
; eftcct to the promulgation of truth, than a score 
of others the most formidable that can be ima- 
gined. This Hercules, it has been attempted to 
strangle in the cradle — with what success, the 
reader will probably determine, in a great mea* 
sure, according to his present dispositions. It h 
not, however, harsh judgment, ta decide that the 
person who still regards the intercommunion of 
Christian denominations as a novel and exclu- 
sively a new-light practice, is obstinately and wil- 
fully blind. Whether the principle b-: correct 
or otherwise, whether the practice be defensible 
or not, one thing is certain — neither of them are 
NEW. It was at least the faith, it was at least 
the practice, of the divines composing the Savoy 
assembly; and if, considering their circumstances, 
the judgment of such men as Owen, Burroughs, 
and Caryl may be relied on, it was the faith and 
practice of the Westminster fathers too. In so 
far as a disposition to '*call any man master'^ 
may influence the fate of this controversy, the 
conflict, therefore, may be looked upon as alrea- 
dy at an end. The practice of the fathers, in 
what we call the purest ages of the Protestant 
religion, and the principles of those standards 
universally adopted by Presbyterians of the West^ 
and not any new and hitherto unheard-of scheme^ 
is advocated in these pages. 

But novelty, though tne most operative, is by- 
no means the only objection; nor, if stripped of 
its imposing appearance, will it seem most wor- 
thy the notice of a conscientious inquirer after 
x2 



102 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 



truth and duty. Against the position that ''saints 
by profession are bound lo maintain an holy fel- 
lowship and communion, and to extend it, as 
God ofFereth opportunity^ unto all those^ who in 
evert/ place cail upon the name of the Lord Je- 
sus," innumerable objections are brought. To 
some of the most formidable . of these, the pre- 
sent number is devoted: to set ourselves in ar- 
ray against every thing that ingenuity might de- 
vise, and pertinacity bring forward, would re- 
quire a field capacious as a folio. 

It is common, and no doubt it is very easy, to 
say that the principles of Christian communion^ 
as stated and defended in a preceding number, 
if carried out, must at once merge all the dis- 
tinctions between truth and error, which separa- 
tions from erroneous profeseors have hitherto so 
successful!)^ preserved: that they stand in diame- 
trical opposition to those salutary admonitions 
given in the scriptures,~''Cease, my son, from 
tne instruction that causeth to err"-r-''Come out 
of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins" — "Withdraw yourselves from every bro- 
ther that walketh disorderly," &c. &c.: that they 
lead men to sanction ^ not only by their presence, 
but by actual participation, all the errors, and all 
the sins, countenanced by any church or indivir 
dual, in whom it ma} be hoped that there is still 
some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel: 
that they render nugatory every thing like stan- 
dards of Christian doctrine and testimonies for 
4ruth: that they, in a word, do a thousand things 
of which our readers wiU have, little inclination to 






THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 103 

hear, and the writer still less leisure to take no- 
tice. But nothing is more common than to jump 
at conclusions before the premises have been 
sufficiently attended to; and one wrong assump- 
tion, in point of matter of fact, will conveniently 
make way for as many wrong conclusions, in 
point of Christian doctrine, as there are objections 
in the case before us. The reader has already 
been sufficiently apprised that a credible profes- 
sion is indispensable to the legitimate acknow- 
ledgment of any man as a saint of God; and that 
the same common sense and scriptural rules by 
which you fix the standing of an applicant for 
membership in your own denomination, are for 
the same reasons applicable, and ought to be ap. 
plied to the members of any other. You do not, 
however, insist on re-examining the pretensions 
of persons admitted into any society in connexion 
with the denomination with which you likewise 
stand connected; but, as knowing the principles 
of that society to be evangelical, you proceed 
upon the ground, that the officers there presiding: 
have been faithful to their trust. For the very 
same reasons you are bound thus to judge con^ 
ccrning other denominations professedly evange- 
lical; and, in virtue of the same supposition, to 
admit in the same way. On the contrary, though 
you have no control over the members of a 
neighbouring congregation of the same denomi- 
nation; though you cannot proceed to try and 
susi^end them; yet, upon the knowledge of their 
irregularity, or upon full conviction of unfaith- 
fulness in the officers who admitted them, with^ 



104 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

out, ind even contrary to, all evidence of a cre- 
dible profession; you have doubtless a natural 
right to supply their defect in discipline, as far 
as it may affect your own society: you have a 
perfect right to say, that such offending mem- 
bers shall stand debarred from your table, till 
their rightful governors take cognizance of their 
case; or, if that cannot be done, till you are sa- 
tisTxcd for yourself of their repentance, or right- 
ful claims, as the case may be. The very same 
mode of reasoning will apply to the members of 
all other denominations. For as their regular 
standing in an evangelical church is the evidence 
to you of their right to Christian ordinances; so, 
when you know of facts destructive of that right, 
you are not only bound to make them known to 
the authorities which alone have immediate co^- 
nizance of the case; but upon their refusal, you 
have a perfect right, as the governor of your own 
house, to say that the offender shall not enter 
there. We are aware that this principle may ap- 
pear new to many. It is unhappily, too seldom 
acted on. But that it Rows directly and legiti- 
mately from the very nature and end of Christian 
discipline, no thinking n.ind will be at a loss to 
see. It is, nevertheless, a power that ought to 
be exercised Vv^ith a great deal of prudence and 
caution: but once admit that it may be exercis- 
ed, and you cut up by the roots one principal 
assumption upon which the main opposition to 
the doctrines here contended for rests. From 
the dcinger of pollution from members in socie- 
ties of other denoniinationsj and of other socie- 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.—RESULTS. 10% 

ties in your own, you free yourselves in the same 
way, and upon precisely the same grounds. In 
one word, whatever be the rules lav/fuUy adopt- 
ed in holding fellowship with Christians of ano-^ 
iher congregation, may, for the same reasons, 
and with the same facility, regulate the inter-- 
course of various denominations, j^nd, by con- 
sequence, every argument drawn from defective 
discipline, from erroneous doctrine, or from ig- 
norance of individual character, that may be 
brought to bear against our doctrine of intercom- 
munion, will conclude with equal effect, and to 
an equal extent, against the admission of mem. 
bers belonging to the same denomination, but of 
a diiferent society: — would, in fact, go to shew, 
that no christian can regularly or safely enjoy the 
fellowship of saints, v/ithout the compass of his 
customary place of worship, and of the single 
congregation with which he is regularly num- 
bered. The reader, by carrying these remarks 
along with him, ^vill find it no hard matter to 
unhinge a great proportion of the thousand ob- 
jections every where resounded against a diffu- 
sive communion with the saints. 

But it will be said that, independently of the 
difficulty of discriminating between the good and 
bad, the sound and the erroneous, in evangelical 
churches over which we have no control, the 
very fact of their existing as distinct churches 
creates an insuperable difficulty. Wherefore re- 
main distinct bodies at all, if it is eligible, and 
even necessary, to commune together.^ And if 
con'uptions or differences be so great as to make 



106 THE BODY OF CHRIST.-^RESULTS. 

it necessary to keep up distinct organization, do 
we riot virtually merge those differences—do 
We not sanction those corruptions, by uniting 
together in the most sacred expressions of fel- 
lowship, and solemn acts of duty, of which in 
this life we are capable? What mean we by our 
Confessions of Faith, if persons who do not 
subscribe to them may be admitted to our fel- 
lowship, as well as they who do? What mean we 
by our testimonies against prevailing error, if the 
world may see us walking with men who hold 
those errors, as openly and lovingly as if no such 
things existed? — This, it is believed, is a fair 
and full stiitement of that class of objections most 
commonly and imposingly urged. They are 
certainly very far from being of a despicable 
character; and all the churches bear witness that 
thfey may be wielded with tremendous effect.— 
To that first, and certainly most respectable ob- 
jection, "wherefore remain distinct bodies at all, 
if there exist no differences that can justify a sus- 
pei.si' n from christian communion?'' it may be 
of importance to remark^ that most of the dis- 
tinccions among evangelical churches are cer- 
tainly without sufficient grounds to justify them, 
and are oftener to be attributed to the selfish 
spirit, or unhallowed frenzy, of those who were 
instrumental in creating them, than to any just 
regard for christian truth, or legitimate efforts to 
"oreserve it. In many cases, however, divisions 
thut originated on grouiidb perfectly justifiable, 
are still maintained, while the reasons that once 
justified them have long since ceased to operate; 



I 



IT 



THE UODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 1^7 

and in crJer to justify the continuance of the 
schism, other reasons are perpetually bringing 
forward, which neither do nor ever could ju'^^tify 
3uch separation. But in addition to this, it should 
never be forgotten, thatall the evangelical churches^ 
so far as we know anything of them, are enorm- 
ously guilty in extending and multiply ing their 
terms of admission. The result is, that how- 
ever nearly christian men may be allied in their 
views, their feelings, and their w^ishcs; though 
they agree in every important article, and in ten 
thousand points of minor consequence; yet, if 
there be an iota of diiibrence in thtir views about 
one single point, concerning which it is judged 
proper to express an opinion^ that single point 
of difference separates them. Neither party can, 
with a good conscience, subscribe to that which 
the other views to be correct; and both parties 
unwisely and imscripturally assuming that, smaU 
as it is, it should be inserted in their standards, 
which standards are to be approved as a condi- 
tion of chnrch- membership, if they be honest 
men they are necessarily divided. Finally, it 
sliould be remembered that edification being one 
great object of all christian fellowship, and of 
the organization of the church of Christ, it v/ould 
be far from practicable, fiir from profitable, at 
once to break down all the distinctions which 
time has rendered venerable, and to infringe 
upon' all the habits that the lapse of generations 
may have n ndtrea incorrigible. Admitting that 
there be i.o doctrinal divtrbities whii^h require 
♦+ie preservation of existing separations, yet it 



108 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

would be plainly impossible to throw together a 
variety of men, from a variety of churches, all 
whose habits of acting and of thinking, in the 
management of church affairs, ai'e so notoriously 
diverse, without producing more halting, vexa- 
tion, heart burning, discrepancy of every kind, 
than the consideration of visible unity, were it 
a thousimd times more strong, could possibly 
counterbalance. Wt must therefore take the 
churches as they are, with all their different de- 
grees of light, and all their diversity of habits; 
and instead of hastily attempting to consolidate 
this disjointed and disordered mass, we must 
study the best means of pursuing, for the present, 
the promotion of the common cause, and the 
edification of every part concerned; and regard 
their assimilation in views and habits as a thing 
of gradual attainment, but of indispensable ne- | 
cessity to a perfect consolidation. Assimilation, 
we mean ,^ in views and habits, so far as is ne- 
cessary to prevent that discrepancy which must 
be the inevitable concomitant of a union among 
materials so discordant as the churches now are, 
especially in their modes of transacting business; 
and so perfectly untutored in the great duty of 
bearing one another's burdens. But, after all, 
the existence of distinct denominations, of which 
the members are severally subjected to their own 
church courts, and independent of all others, is 
not in itself a matter by half so serious a$ we 
might, at first thought, apprehend. It is an ac- 
commodation not unlike that which universally, 
and very properly, subsists among churches of the 



THE BODY OF CIIRIST.— RESULTS. 109 

6ame denomination. Ivvery session^ every pres- 
bytery, every synod, every national assembly^ 
acts independently of every other, and possesses, 
within appropriate bounds, vxi exclusive juris- 
diction. The reason is plain: it is not practica- 
ble, much less would it be for edification, that 
all christian men should be subject to one and 
the same set of rulers. Their dispersion over a 
great extent of country imposes the necessity of 
their being amenable to different ecclesiastical 
courts, both of an inferior and superior grade. 
The member of one congregation is not subject 
to the session of another: the member of one 
presbytery can claim no jurisdiction over the con- 
cerns of another: the superior judicature, in one 
pation or district, possesses no authority over the 
people of another, though they correspond as 
sister churches. And yet the fact of your par- 
ticipation in the common privileges of christian 
men, in and under any one of these little divi- 
^ons of the church, unquestionably secures to 
you the same privileges in every other. Now 
whence arises this discrimination? Obviously 
from this single consideration, that good govern- 
ment requires the existence of courts exerciOTig 
distinct and independent authority (independent, 
we mean, upon others of the same grade); be- 
cause there is a natural and an obvious necessity 
for our being dispersed far and wide, and the 
mode of exercising ecclesiastical authority must 
be accommodated to the nature of the case: the 
reason of the arrangement is, in other words, 
-nerely geographical But gcograjubical coo- 

K 



1^ 



110 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

siderations can have no kind of influence in sett- 
ling our participation in those common privi- 
leges, that are no way connected with them, nor 
influenced by them. The very san:je thing holds 
i^oodin relation to those differences amcne evan- 
gelical professors, which may be admitted as 
just grounds for constituting different denomi- 
nations. A difference of view, for instance, in 
relation to the form of church government, or 
the scriptural mode of managing some things 
essential to good order, will create a barrier 
against subjection to the same church court, as 
real and as formidable as tlie intervention of the 
Atlantic Ocean can possibly be esteemed to be: 
the only difference is, that the inability arises in 
-the one case from geographical considerations, 
and in the other from considerations of a moral 
jiature. But as neither of these considerations 
render it difficult for men to enjoy in common 
the privileges belonging to christians merely as 
jsuch, it is easy to conceive that as he who is en- 
titled to ^hem, because a member of Christ, on 
one side of the w^ater, is equally entitled to them 
on the other, and among churches to which he 
is not subject; so he who is entitled to them upon 
scriptural grounds in an independent congrega- 
tion, may on the same grounds be entitled to 
them within the precincts of any other. Unless 
indeed you mean to contravene all scriptural 
precept and example by saying that the error or 
misconception, on whichever side it be, is of 
itself sufficient to annul a christian's claim to the 
privileges of the church: and against this assump 



a 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. Ill 

tion we shall just now beg leave to issue our 

"quo warranto." If so little can be gained 

by merging at once all distinction of denomina- 
tion, inasmuch as "holy communion and fellow- 
ship" in all those ordinances about which we are 
agreed may be safely maintained w^ithout it, there 
is obviously rK)thingto require — nothing to jus- 
tify a premature amalgamation of the churches. 
Edification is one main point to be studied; and 
however much wc may find occasion to regret 
the mischiefs of the schism that formerly sepa- 
rated them, yet this separation having been once 
made, edification will be most consulted by pro- 
longing the separate state so long as there is a 
prospect of their doing more for the common 
cause by walking together in the things about 
v/hich they do not differ^ md yet maiatainiiig 
independent jurisdiction, than by attempting a 
union that must expose them to all that jarring 
and counteraction which confiicting habits will 
infallibly produce. When brotherly intercourse 
has sufficiently assimilated their modes of think- 
ing and acting, there will be every reason for a 
perfect union. Till that take place, it by no 
liieans follows that they should stand in every re- 
spect united, because they may freely join in 
commemorating the dying love of God theii* 
Saviour — a transaction about which fev/ real 
christians v/ill be found to differ, however vari- 
ou«5 their views in other things. 

Slill, however, it is urged that setting aside all 
questions of practicability and expediency, we 
have no v/ay left us to testify against the errors 



• '12 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

of individuals and churches, but by separating 
xi'om their communion: and therefore to act upon 
the principle here contended for, while we at the 
same time remain distinct bodies, is to destroy 
the very thing which we profess to build. What 
becomes of the testimony for truth which our 
separation is understood to constitute? What be- 
comes of the uflences that induced that separa- 
tion? Wiiat becomes of those standards of doc- 
trine, of discipline and of worship, to which the 
separatists refuse to bow, and are nevertheless 
^.cjmitted? 

These are no doubt very imposing objections; 
and were they only predicated upon one correct 
assumption, they might fairly defy the logic of 
a million of assailants. But then where did }'ou 
iearn that separation from the communion of a 
church of Christ is a proper way of testifying 
against her errors? Where did you make the 
discovery that the refusal to admit of the fellow- 
ship of a christian brother in ordinances about 
which you are perfectly agreed, is the scriptu- 
ral mode of chastising his misapprehensions about 
some other matters in which of course you pur- 
sue a separate track? AVhere is it written *'him 
that is weak in the faith" receive ye not at ally 
lest it should unhappily give occasion for ''doubt- 
ful disputations?'^ Oi* how has it been discover- 
ed that in holding fellowship with a man who 
cannot see in all things with the standards of 
your church, }ou thereby in all those respects 
nullify your standards, and just so far take down 
yoqr testimony against abounding error? May it 



HE BODY OF CHRIST. ^RESULTS. H^ 

not be looked upon as ''passing strange'' that 
the fact of your giving the right hand of fellow- 
ship to a christian brother, and v/alking with 
him in every thing vvhich you yourself call "the 
right ways of the Lord," destroys by implication 
your testimony against his irregularity in those 
very things in which you refuse all counte 
iiance and connexion v/ith him, on the ground 
of their being unw^arranted by the word of God, 
or perhaps in direct opposition lo it? Or would 
it not rather appear that by joining yourself to 
every christian man in so far as he is disposed 
to w^alk with you in the right way, you have it 
in your power to give a much more direct, a 
much more commanding, and a much plainer 
testimony against his errors or misdeeds, v/hen 
you separate from him onli/ in those things and 
to that extent in which he separates from the 
law of your Lord? Is not this a better w^ay of 
discriminating his errors? Does not this more 
decidedly attest your love of scriptural truth - 
and christian ordinances? Is it not thus you act 
in all the common intercourse of life, and with 
respect to the ebulitions of corruption in your 
bretliren? — By w hat strange process then do you 
arrive at conclusions in this instance, directiv 
the reverse of all those which you deem just and 
salutary in eJvery other? It is very easy, to be 
sure, to descant with much spirit, and propriety 
too, upon^the sin and danger of countenancing 
erroneous doctrines and unwarrantable practices 
in the church of God: but then that is not the 
point iu dispute. The question i§ simply wheth- 

k2 



114 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

cr the giving countenance to individuals and 
churches which we not only acknowledge to be 
christian, but to be correct and enlightened in 
the main, amounts to any thing like a sanction- 
ing their irregularities, while at the same time 
we refuse to join them in any thing but that 
which we both consider as agrceable to the com- 
mandment of the Lord. It is by no means con- 
tended that we are to go with any, further than 
they follow Christ: nay it is predicated that we 
are as individuals and as churches to testify a- 
gainst every species and instance of disregard to 
the holy commandment. But because you tes- 
tify against whatever you deem wrong, it by no 
means follows that you should refuse your sanc- 
uon to any thing that is right: it by no means 
follows that errors in other evangelical churches 
should estrange you entirely from their fellow- 
ship, any more than the things which you can* 
not approve in the churches of your own deno- 
mination imposes on you a necessity of estrang- 
ing yourselves from them. — Evangelical church- 
es be it remembered we have said. For though 
there may be in others, persons whom upon suffi- 
cient acquaintance you feci constrained to ac- 
knowledge as fellow members of the Lord, yet 
with these individuals you must proceed on dif- 
ierent principles; for while a church is ostensibly 
built upon "the sand,^' you are not to proceed 
with her as if founded on the "rock." You are 
certainly as a christian to maintain no intercourse 
with them who are ostensibly uncomiected with 
the body of Jesus Christ* Whether it be indi- 



w 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 115 



\ iduals, or whethether it be churches, the fellow- 
ship we contend for is ''the fellowship of saints ^'^^ 
and it is upon the scriptural evidence that they 
are really such, you are warranted, nay command- 
ed to embrace them. But surely this imposes 
no necessity upon you of following them in their 
departures from the right way, or of mingling the 
self-willed devices of corruption widi the incense 
you offer to the common Lord. If the}- in par- 
ticular instances will do so, unhappily mistaking 
sin for duty, you are by no means constrained to- 
imitate them; but rather your refuel so to do^ 
your admonitions and protestations prudently ad- 
ministered, will probably be a much mere effec- 
tual testimony, and will certainly be a mucli 
more striking one, than if you separated yourseir 
entirely from the good as well as evil. 

Which of these modes of procedure is most 
agreeable to the example set us by our blessed 
Lord and his holy Apostles, it is by no means 
difficult to pronounce. We rest not the con- 
troversy on the point before us on our awn frail 
and fallible reasonings, satisfactory as, in this in- 
stance, they really do appear. Let the persons 
who received the Apostieship "not of men, nei- 
ther by man," let ''the true and the faithful wit- 
ness,'' instruct us by their own example how far 
we are to consider ourselves as countenancing 
die frailties or mistakes of men by extending to 
them our fellowship in things allowable. Let us 
see whether those deductions which lash so un- 
mercifully the supporters of the principles here 
ix)ntended for, da nqt reach likewise the backs- 



116 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RKouLi^ 

of the Apostles,— do not fall heavily on our Loid 
Jesus Christ hunself. It is a remarkable fact 
ihaf except in one or two instances, in which 
their own obtrusiveness brough.t it upon them- 
selves, he never distinguished by his notice the 
demerits of the Sadducees* They v/ere the phi- 
losopb.ical gentlem.en, the free-thinkers of the da}'. 
He throws none of his pearls before swine; ho 
Jionoiirs them neither with controversy nor re- 
proof. Bat of his warnings directed - to the 
Scribes and Pharisees; of their hypocrisy, of 
their self- righteousness, of their abominations 
both in doctrine and practice, every child has 
herj d. With the utmost freedom, and often 
with the utm.ost severity, the Redeemer s{X)ke of 
them, both present and ab:'£nt. These were die 
men vrho sat in ?rIoses' seat; they with their ad- 
herents formed by far the most numerous, and 
certainly tb*e most hopeful portion of the Jewish 
people. Yet, ge'nerallv at least, ''being ignorant 
of the righteousness of God," they w^ent about 
**to establish their own righteousness:" they made 
void the law of God by their traditions: they 
heaped up to tnem elves the greater damnation 
by their mutilated services. What was the con- 
sequence? Did our Lord Jesus Christ withdraw 
from their communion, that he might not be ac- 
counted a partaker of their evil deeds? Did he 
think it needful to break oft*, that he might there- 
by testify against their multiplied errors? No 
such thing. He testified minutely, he testified 
boldly, he testified to the last against all error and 
'ui behiilf of all truth; but to the ^ay of his deatlt 



Liev4l,j^ 



r 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 117 



be was in communion with that church; and ne- 
ver shunned anvof her ordinances, never absent- 
ed himself from any part of her communion^ be- 
cause most of her members were a disgrace to 
their profession. He never commanded his dis- 
ciples to withdraw, lest they, weak and ignorant^ 
should be ensnared by those corruptions: '*thc 
Scribes and Pharisees,'^ said he, "^it in Moses* 
seat: all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you ob- 
serve, that observe and do; but do not ye after 
their works: for they say and do ^iot."* They 
were however to '^beware of the leaven of the 
Pharisees;'' they w-ere to^'obey God rather thai* 
man;" they were to cleave to the Pharisees as 
authorised teachers in the true though unhappi- 
ly very corrupt church of God, ^5 far as they 
clavG to the ordinances of divine appointment; 
they were to unite, and till cast out of the syna- 
gogues they did unite, with the whole body of 
the Jew ish people as far as they walked in the 
way prescribed: but they did nothing more. And 
this casting out of the synagogue w^s the way in 
which our Lord warned them that they would be 
separated from a very corrupt communion, be- 
cause that church would not bear a faithful testi- 
mony to truth. Here then we have evidence of 
the most decided kind that you may testify a- 
gainst men's errors without separating from their 
communion: and that the being cast out, not the 
going outy is the regular mode of separation from 
a church of the character in cjuestion. But if 

^ Mattb, xxiii. 2, G. 



lis THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

she be God's church, however defaced, however 
impure, however erroneous ii\ innumerable points, 
you act far otherwise than did our Lord, or than 
his disciples were enjoined to do, if you with- 
draw yourself from her fellowship in things un- 
deniably Christian in order to testify against o- 
thers which are not so. 

It is easy to say, indeed, that under the former 
dispensation there was but the one temple and the 
one church, so that men could not withdraw un- 
der those circumstances without unchurching 
themselves entirely. And so you may invent a 
thousand other sapient distinctions. But all that 
kind of discrimination is perfectly idle. The 
facts prove th.it testimony against that which is 
wronp- mau be maintained without abstainiae 
from fellowship in that which is figrrt. ^fina yutrr- 
maintaining that the necessary unity of the church 
in those days, because there was but the one 
temple, v/as the thing that prevented a complete 
separation, is begging the question. How do 
you know that this was the reason of our Lord's 
conduct and of his injunction upon his disciples? 
He does not say so! It is no where so written in 
any portion of the scriptures. Whence then did 
you gather it? — Verily it is to be feared that 
Scribes and Pharisees were not the only people 
who have set up their traditions to make void 
the law of Cod. But vrould it not be rather 
strange if the rccison suggested should happen to 
bethe true one! According: to the assuniption, 
we are bound to bt,p:irate Irom acknowledged;" 
Christians in every thing, because we believe^ 



T 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.--RESULTS. U^ 



llicm to be wrong in T\\:\ny things; and unless 
. we separate we ecuntenance their error: but ac- 
cording to the matter of fact, under a former dis- 
pensation, our Lord Jesus Christ and his disci^ 
pies could not separate, because there was but 
the one temple, c:nd at this all must worship, 
StranQ:e indeed if the constitutions of God thus 
interfere with one another! if they thus smite a- 
gainst one another! and matters, through the in- 
fluence of human depravity, get into such a state 
that one or the other ot God's constitutions must 
give way!! **Tc]l it not in Gath, publish it not 
in the streets of Askelon: lest the daughters of 
the Philistines rtjoice, lest the daughters of the 

uncircumcised triumph." ''I am distressed 

for thee, my brother Jonathaii! ' 

But it is not barely under the Jewish dispen- 
sation that we find our Lord himself proceeding 
upon principles directly opposite to those which 
in our day are supposed so necessary to preserve 
the conscience clean: the very same thing has 
been done by him since the introduction of the 
new dispensation. Look at his epistles to the 
seven chiirches of Asia, Mark the requisitions 
contained in those epistles. And then say, if y on 
can, that any trace of the modern spirit and mo- 
dern mode of managing, testimonies against the 
people of God is any where to be found. Against 
''the Nicolaitanes,'^ against those who held "the 
doctrines of Balaam," against such as said they 
wv!-^ Jews and were not, but were the synagogue 
of S /.tan, you will find a forcible and ample tes- 
timony. Yqu will see the followers of the Lamb 



120 THE BODY OF CHRIST.-^RESULTS. 

commended for withdrawing themselves from 
3uch, and for trying 'Hhem which said they were 
Apostles, and were not." But with respect to 
the multitudes of defections among the people of 
Ged diemselves, you hear of no such thing. 
Though there were only ^*a few names in Sardis'* 
who had kept themselves in every respect as it 
was their duty t® have done, yet you do not find 
those few reprDved because they had not with- 
drawn themselves from the great mass w^hose 
works were not found "perfect before God.^^ 
You do not read that they were enjoined thus to 
withdraw that their testimony might be main- 
tained. And even upon the church of Thyatira 
still more unpromising as her condition was, we 
read that he imposed this burden only: *^that 
which thou hast already hold fast till I come." 
Here indeed the laxity of discipline is severely 
blamed; for gross breaches of the hw of God had 
I>een committed: but this was not a reason why 
the purer portion should withdraw. It was their 
business to *'hold fast." How much worse the 
condition of most of those churches was than that 
of most modern evangelical churches from which 
it is held needful to stand entirely separate; and 
how much more flagrant than modern diiFerences '■ 
in points of * ^doubtful disputation," were the de- 
partures that called for no such measures then, 
he wIk) runs may read. 

Precisely in conformity with these views do 
we find the Apostles acting. When the church 
of Galatia, after beginning "in the Spirit," sought 
:o be "made perfect by the fiesh/' the Apostle 



Paul feared lest he had * 'bestowed upon her la- 
bour in vain:'' he argues, he illustrates, he rcr- 
proves, he threatens, he laments: but it is no 
where written that he separated from her com- 
munion, or enjoined it upon others so to do, in 
order to bear testimony against her defections 
from the faith. They who troubled her are spo- 
ken of as pernicious and malignant persons upon 
whom the Apostle wished that, for the deliver- 
ance of the brethren^ God would lay his heavy 
hand; — he wished ^'they were even cut off?' but 
that Paul thought her recovery hopeless, notwith- 
standing the pit into which she had fallen; or 
that he thought himself or other faithful men 
obliged to separate from her to discountenance 
her error, is very, very far from appearing from 
his epistles. The whole spirit they breathe teaches 
us the contrary. And yet how malignant were 
those errors, how disastrous those departures^ 
compared with what is to be complained of a-^ 
mong evangelical churches, every one must see; 
unless indeed it be the man who. Inattentive to 
the merits of the case, regards every error vicious 
because he testifies against it, and every fault of 
the utmost consequence because it has elicited 
the vigour of his arm. Such characters we must 
refer for an answer to our quotation from Dr. 
Owen in the preceding number, page 80. *'Yoii 
seldom see a man take up a bye-opinion, 'V&c, 

Now though it is certainly true that theChris- 
lian church in those ages was not divided as at 
present, and therefore that the cases are not per- 
fectly parallel, yet let it teach us that divisions 

1, 



L22 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

often have been made upon grounds most lUi- 
scriptura!, under the pretence of testifying ngainfl 
error; and that we are bound to no such -absti- 
nence. . It certainly shews us mcreover that, 
however circumstances may difler in this re- 
spect, yet in the nature of the thing there is no 
necessity for a refraining from all intercom^c and 
fellowship in order to testify against corriiptior.3 
not inconsistent wilh a sound profession.. If no 
such thing was requisite while the Christian 
church was one, by v;hat rule do you ftnd it new 
more necessary, v\ hen she is unhappily shattered? 
If then men could communicate together" who 
professedly held the head, and yet could '*bear 
testimony to the evii'^ wherever the evil was con- 
ceived to be, why not do so rioxv^ Why is your 
total abstinence from the communion of another 
denomination needful as a testimony against \yom^ 
of their doctrines and practices, if the same was 
not necessary while the churches were yet one, 
and is not now judged necessury within your own 
denominatior.? 

Crying out therefore against the criminality of 
holding fellowship with those w^ho unhappily mis- 
take or perversely neglect some Christian regu. 
lation or salutary truth, — S-ying that in doing so 
w* sanction their misdeeds, support their errors, 
declare ourselves in every respect one with them; 
—IS to strike at the Apostles, is to villify the 
cor»duct of our Lord Jesus Christ, who never 
sanctioned any man*s enormity, who never g-'XVtr 
Couni<*nance to erroneous principles, who a/zf;ay^ 
protested ui favour of the truth, but who never 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 123 

separated, in the worst of times never separated 
himself from any, further than they separated 
from the law of truth. 

If in order to faithfuhiess you judge such a 
course needful, you must even act as you think 
fit. But remember that in doing so, you act not 
only without a scriptural warrant, but in direct 
opposition to all scriptural example, 7722,$ then 
you cannot call *'the good old way," however 
pleasing to your heated spirit: here you are not 
following the "footsteps of the flock,'' unless you 
choose to consecrate with that venerable name 
their obvious defections from *'the footsteps" of 
their master. You have therefore no right to 
enjoin it upon others to follow^ your example: 
you have no reason to separate from those whom 
in all other respects you would call faithful bre- 
thren, because they are in this case tlie imitators 
of him who breaks not the bruised reed, nor 
leaves his brethren to themselves beCvause of their 
many and lamentable imperfections. And how- 
ever frequently those questions may recur, why 
then remain separate at all? Or liow join in 
Christian fellowship with a cliurch winch still per* 
scveres in those defections tliat at first occasioned 
the division: let, we beseech you, the answcrr. 
that have been furnished recur along with tlicm: 
—it is obvious from our Lord's conduct and that 
of his Apostles, that most of those separations a- 
jnong evangelical churches have taken place in 
an unscriptural manner and upon unscriptural 
grounds. There never was good reason ibrsitcli 
recession; a testimonv for truth and a walk of 



. I' 

124 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— UEJSULCcj. 

purity might have been maintained without it. 
And as such difterences never were, thev cannot 
$iow be a ground of parting fellowship in matters 
about which all are agreed. Nevertheless, for 
tht reasons already submitted, it by no mean;5 
follows that all distinctions should be in a mo- 
ment done away. Commune together the 
churches may^ at once and without injiiry; it 
will tend to draw them nearer and nearer in the 
bonds of charity: but hastily and perfectly tinite.^ 
they obviously cannot; it would bring their ha- 
bits and views into perpetual conflict, and we 
Iknow who hath said ^'an house divided against 
itself cannot stand/' The one course would ri» 
f)en for a permanent and salutary union; while 
in the mean time the benefit of nothing Christia:;;^ 
in which they agree is lost: the other woqldren-^ 
der union itself a grievance, and secure no com- 
fortablc prospect of benefit from any thing. 

*But is it not written,' it is urged with perti- 
nacity and triumph, 'is it not written in the scrip- 
tures, '^'Cease my son from the instruction that 
causeth to err''- — ^'Corne out of her, my people, 
that ye be not partakers of her sins'' — ''With- 
-c^aw yourselves from every brother that walketh 
disorderly,'" 8cc- &c. And is not the holding fel- 
io vvship with other churches Vvhich w^e believe to 
be disorderly, a most daring violation of these po- 
::itive injunctions?' Yea it is doubtless so written, 
and it becomes all men to be careful how by their 
own traditions, and by the interpretations of their 
self- will, they make void the law of God. But 
wh^t mean v^m I>v tint inii:!i':tion. ^-cense mv 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 125 

son from the instruction that caiiscth to err?" or 
rather what does the scripture mean l:^)^Jt? That 
injunction was deiivered so long ago as't% days 
of Solomon. We have often heard what kind 
of teachers were "the Scribes and Pharisees, who 
sat in Moses' seat." And \'et our blessed Lord 
w^as in the habit of attending on the Sabbath-days 
the synagogues of those teachers: he hkewise 
enjoined it upon his disciplqs, "All therefore 
whatsoever they bid you observe, that obsen^c 
and do." No commandment w^as laid upon any 
Jew to cease from the v/orship of those congre- 
gations which, however corrupted in very many 
respects, were still the congregations of the Lord. 
And yet you will hardly undertake to say that 
our blessed master authorized men to disregard 
his own injunction, by the mouth of his servant 
Solomon. You give therefore a wrong interpre- 
tation to the passage: the very conduct of our 
Lord, and of his Apostles, who still conformed 
so much to Jewish rites after the dispensation 
which required them wns done a^vay — that very- 
conduct shews that your interpretation is inad- 
missible. Our I^rord never encouraged or sanc- 
tioned the unholy traditions of the elders, though 
he bade his disciples go where they must have 
been often heard: the Apostles never encouraged 
and emboldened men to cleave to Judaism and 
reject the New Testament order of things, though 
they so often attended and even conformed to 
rites no longer obligatory. By ceasing from theu 
instructions, or from hearing the instructions that 
cause to err, we cannot therefore nnderstand that 

x2 ■ 



126 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

v/e are to keep away from ever}^ worshipping ar^ 
sembly, or from every Christian ordinance, when 
it is probable, and even ceitain, that we may sec 
and hear some things which we cannot approve. 
The meaning obviously is, that we are not to 
give a willing eai* to such instructions, that we 
must not approve them, must not comply with 
them, but ''try the spirits whether they be of 
God.'' Yet so far as God is vvorshipped we are 
nevertheless to unite in his Vvorship; and in so 
far as his saving truth is made known, we are to 
distinguish it, to receive it, to rejoice in it. 
Therefore it v/as that while our Lord bade his 
disciples to attend to those instructors, he uni- 
formly cautioned them likewise to beware of their 
errors. Interpret the passage in any other w^ay, 
and you cannot avoid making our blessed Lord 
himself and all his Apostles the promoters and 
open countenancers of error. For you cannot 
say that one rule of procedure was applicable to 
then* and to that age, and that another rule is to 
be pursued in our age, without at the same time 
denying that they are our exemplars whom we 
are, fo imitate. But indeed, upon this subject, 
there is infinitely less pains taken to shew how 
the great Pattern and his inspired followers acted, 
than to display a multitude of reasons why we 
Bhould NOT conform to their example. And 
yet, strange to be told! those very passages of 
scripture to which men now appeal, are the ones 
which existed or were dictated in their days, for 
the government of their conduct, under the cir- 
cumstances of their case. How marvellously 
v/md^ can change their meaning? 



THE BODY OF CHRIST .—RESULTS. 127 

The other two passages comrnonl) alleged are, 
if possible, still less to the purpose, That com- 
mand, "Come out of her my people," &c. so 
frequently brought lor ward as an nrgumenr a- 
gainst all Christian fellowship with defective 
churches, was addressed by the Redeemer to his 
scattered people in the church of Rome, at a ve- 
ry advanced period of her apostacy. She had 
long ceased entirely to *'hoId the head;'' she had 
long been known as "the mother cf harlots and 
abominations of the earth;" she had long made 
the nations drunken with the blood of the saints: 
and yet (wonderful to think of! considering the 
purpose for which this passage is adduced), it 
was not even at the commencement of her apos- 
tacy, it v/as not till that very advanced stage of 
it which synchronizes with the predictions of the 
eighteenth chapter of Revelations, that it became 
the imperious duty of the people of God abso- 
lutely and entirely to wiU^draw even from her 
communion. When long suffering and patience 
had been exerted to the utmost, va hen that bar- 
ren and baleful tree had been fruitlessly revisited 
for many an age, when her sins had reached to 
heaven, when God was just about to let loose his 
fearful judgments as upon a creature ^i7;^« up — 
then, and not till then, v/as that commandment 
issued, "Come out of her my people;" for grieve 
ous as was her sore, it seems God had a people 
in her still. And v/ho can say how many may 
yet be in her, who do not hear his voice in that 
particular, and according to the threatening are 
^^artakers of her plagues^" When you find an 



128 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS; 

cvangc4ical church circumstanced hke Rome, 
when you find a people whose ignorance and cor- 
ruptions and disorders you lament* butvvhoni 
nevertlieless you discern to be *^ sealed with that 
holy spirit of promise," and shewing that they 
walk in the spirit by producing in their measure 
"the fruits of the spirit:-'- — when you sec such a 
church and such a people circumstanced like 
Rome, at that period of corruption noticed in the 
prophecy, then you may reverberate, then \o\i 
may obey that voice from heaven, ''Come out of 
her m.y people." But you are in the mean time 
to recollect tlitit by taking passages of scripture 
out of their connexion, and applying them m 
cases utterly foreign to the circumstances under 
v/hich the^v were employed, you not only make 
plain things ''hard to be understood;'" but you 
certainly approximate a "wresting of the scrip- 
tures" to the destruction of the churches, if^ 
through the irifinite mercy of God, it be not ta 
your own. It is extremely ill-advised, my bro- 
ther, it is dangerous, it is ruinous, thus to bend 
into 2ir\ accommodation to every little controversy 
those passages of scripture of such weighty im- 
port, * 'the sense" of v/hich *'is not manyfold, but 
on<?." 

'But is it not a fact that every individual and 
every church which errs in doctrine or in prac- 
tice from the written word, is a disorderly walk- 
er." And does not the Apostle Paul command 
us, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," to 
withdraw ourselves "from every brother that 
walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 129 

U'hich he received" of him?' To this it might 
be abundantly suiScient to object that the pass- 
age cannot be interpreted in tiiis sense and ta the 
extent for which it is brought forward^ without 
making the Apostle's own example contradict 
his precept. He never thus withdrew, he never 
tlireatened thus to wididraw himself from the dis- 
orderly churches of Corinth and Galatia. He 
makes it no part of the fault of the more stedfast 
:n either of them that they bad not thuswithdrawn 
from their offending brethren. And in the nu- 
merous controversies on which he lias decided 
relative to meats, and holy- days, and things of- 
fered to idols, he is far from teaching that his tra^^ 
dition, his exposition on this subject, however 
authentic, should be submitted to on pain of ex- 
pulsion. Such as received and acquiesced in the 
Apostle's view are not commanded to withdraw 
themselves from every member v/ho walked not 
according to the tradition then delivered. No: 
the conclusion of the whole matter is, ^4et every 
man be firmly persuaded in his own mind;" and 
the common duty is declared to be that "we 
judge not another man's servant.''— ^—Clearly 
then the injunction before us must be made to 
cover immensely more than the Apostle had in 
his eye, or we shall have bim times without num- 
ber, both by precept and example, contradicting 
his own principles as set down in the words un- 
der consideration. The same remarks might be 
made with respect to our Lord's own conduct 
while on earth; and to the glaring omission which 
upon this principle must be admitted in his c;- 



i3() THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

pistles to most of the seven churches of Asia. — ^ 
ThoiiC churches arc repeatedly apphiuded fcri' 
\/ithdra\ving from, or rather for rejectmg the cor- 
rupt Nicolaitanes and Gnostics, persons who 
made void entirely the gospel of his grace: but 
ihej^ are no where censured for neglecting to pur- 
sue the course attempted to be imposed by the 
quotation in question, in relation to many among 
themselves who wxre far from abiding in every 
thiug by the rules laid -down in scripture. And 
yet an atteptive reader of those epistles must see 
that they had not pursued that course. Once 
more then we must object to this arbitrary mode 
of interpreting scriptures without any regard to 
the connexion in which they stand, or to the cir- 
cumstances to which they have respect. 

The fact is that the Apostle is not speakings 
of the exercise of church discipline at all: and it is 
doubtful whether the injunction to withdraw has 
the most remote reference to christian ordinances. 
The passage is as follows: *'Now we command 
you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus 
'^Christ, that yc withdraw youselves from every 
'^brother that w^alketh disorderly, and not after 
'^the tradition which he received of us. For you 
*\vourselves know how ye ought to follow us: 

*'F0R V/ii BEHAVED NOT OUHSELVES BISOR- 
'^DERLY AMONG YOU; NEITHER DID WE EAT 
*'ANY man's EREAD i-'OR NOUGHT; BUT 
'^WROUGHT Vv'ITH LABOUR AND TRAVAIL 
^;NIGHT AND DAT, THAT WE MIGHT NOT BE 
^•CHARGEABLE TO ANY OF Y OF: UOt bccaUSC 

^*\ve have not power, but to make ourselves on 



*f 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 131 

Vnsamplc unto you to follow us. For tveu 
Svhtn we were with vou, this we corumanded 
*'yoa, that ifan?j nmn would not work, neither 
''should he eat. For 7ve hear that there are 
'some which walk among you disorderly, werk- 
'ing not at ail^ bui: arc busy bodies. Now them 
'^ihiit are such we conirnand, aijci exhort by our 
''Lord JesusClirist, that with quietness they work, 
^'"and eat theiT own bread. But ye, brethren, be 
ViOt weary in ueii-doing. And if any man obey 
^not our word by this epiatle. note that man and 
^'have no company with him, that he may be 
^^ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but 
'•admonish him as a brother." 2 Thess. iii. 6 — 
15. What the Apostle means by disorderly 
walkers, in the sixth verse, he immediately ex- 
plains by adverting to the manner in which he 
had walked among them. And in the eleventh 
verse we find him giving the reason for the in- 
junction he had just laid on them: ^"-forwehear^^^ 
says he, 'Hhat there are some which walk am»ng 
you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy- 
bodies. ^"^ These then were the people whom the 
Apostle calls ^ disorderly;^ and he says that his 
reason for giving the command in question was 
that he had heard there v/ere such in Thessaloni- 
ca. Persons w^ho calculated on livinL>^ entirely 
upon the liberality of their brethren; for which 
the notorious liberality of christians in that age 
afforded them great opportunity. And cis peo- 
ple who liave nothing to do, or who neglect their 
proper business and live upon their friends, arc 
of course exposed to all the teinptauoas mwdai^ 



132 THE BODY OF CHaiST— RESULTS, 

*o idicnesb; i*: is I'^ot to be wondered at that tlie 
tcurch ox Thtsbalonica should, under these cir- 
:'jmsuaices, be infested uith "'busy-bodies,^^ 
who as thcv had .iothing to do but talk, and no 
ooi'.cerns of their own to employ their minds^ 
•yoiud naturally '^'busy'^ thcnnscives about their 
^^rij^hbonrs' conctrriis, and to tHe vice of loung- 
>hi:i join a lost of the vices of the tongue. The 
mischiefs of 6uch a state of things any body can 
iniagine. Now what was the Apostle's remedy? 
''Withdraw yourselves from" such says he; 
''note such men, and have no company witji 
:hem, that tliev mav be ashamed," Do not as- 
sociate with them: give them no kind of coun- 
tenance: and when your table fails them they 
will be obliged to work. Do not listen to their 
^Svhisperings and backbitings:" discountenance 
by every mean their intermeddling spirit: shame 
will compel them to hold their tongue* This 
it must be granted was the best mode of treat- 
ing tattlers. A craving appetite would speak 
more in praise of industry than a thousand friend- 
ly cautions; and to make an idler work is the 
best of all methods for suppressing the mischiefs 
of a restless tongue. When people find some- 
thing else to do than gadding about, they are 
generally little disposed to collect or retail the 
news of the neighbourhood. 

Such then is evidently the Apostle^s drift.--*^ 
Such is the kind of persons from whom he com- 
mands us to withdraw. He addresses himself 
moreover to the great body of the faithful, in 
their individual capacity: he does not say, as in 



r 



IHE BODY or CHRIST.— KESULTS. l^ 



the case of the incestuous person at Corinth, *'in 
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are 
gathered together, and my spirit, with the power 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one 
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that 
the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord 
Jesus." The disorders of ThessaioRica were of 
such a nature as can with difficulty be made ob- 
jects of church discipline; and can in fact never 
be so treated until the evil has increased to a 
very great degree. Yet every body can discern 
the evil; every body have it in their power to 
apply the proper remedy: tliey have only to 
withhold bread from the siiunterer, and their q& 
from the busy-body, and the means and incen- 
tives to his criminal and injurious course will 
be at once cut off. This then is exactly what 
the Apostle directs to in the passage before us: and 
powerfully as these words have been often wield- 
ed to beat down every thing like intercourse 
^mong christians of different denominations, there 
is no small reason to apprehend that if all the 
churches rightly understood and fiiithfully prac- 
tised them, the men by whom they are handlec^;; 
with most dexterity and warmth would often be 
the first to feel their weight. 

The communion of saints then, though it be 
^'extended to all those who in every pHce call 
upon the name of the Lord Jesus," by no means 
contravenes any of those scriptures which are sup-? 
posed to make against it It neither binds us to 
walk with any christian man, farther than he 
^Valks in the .commandments of the Lord; nor 



i34 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. i 

does it cut us off from the privilege of walking f 
with the churches so far as they do this, though | 
in many things besides they may be wanting to 
their duty, and in many things contrary to it. It 
neither countenances the supposition that we ap- 
prove of every thing in the churches with wliich 
we hold christian fello^vship; nor does it seal up 
our lips from testifying against their errors. In 
one word, the truths which they do hold cor- 
rectly, the ordinances which they do administer 
rightly, are the Lord's truths, are the Lord's or- 
dinances: these we may partake with other chris- 
tian men, wherever we can find them* But 
their ignorance, their errors, their perversenes;*, 
their evil practices are their own: from these we 
must in all cases not only abstain, but we must 
testify against them. Thus did our Lord in the 
church qf the Jews; thus did his Apostles among 
the churches of the Gentiles: and unless we arc 
prepared to say ^hat no denomination except our 
own is a church of Jesus Christ, unless we re- 
fuse to recognize the fruits of his Spirit, and to 
extend our love and countenance where he has 
shed his grace, we must do as they. 

'But what shall we do with our confessions of 
faith upon this principle? What force can they 
have as testimonies for truth or barriers against 
error, if we open our gates to men who refuse 
to subscribe them, and riin ourselves to ciiurches 
that adopt a different standard r'^ This is t^/e last 
objection we pan pretend to notice: it does not 
need a verv laboured mswer. Men mis- kc en- 
lir^ i^e nature »nd,inte4itioi^ of confessions of 



THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 135 

tliitli, distended like those in modern use, when 
they can allow themselves to suppose that an ob- 
jection drawn from that quarter has any bearing 
on the point in hand. It has already been shewn 
that even sacramental communion amQunts to 
nothing like a declaration of our agreement in 
most matters of Christian faith. This is not at 
all the design of these ordinances. Even those 
confessions upon which the last stand is made 
will tell you that this is by no means their de- 
sign. Men who make use of thepa as a testimony 
of their agreement in a circle of christian doc- 
trines, and as a declaration of their adherence to 
the same confession of faith, are not only guilty 
of perverting them to a [purpose for which they 
v/ere never ordained, but they do so in the very 
teeth of that confession to which they thereby 
profess to set their seaL If then your commun- 
ing with a christian brother, or a christian churchy 
does not express your adherence to certain stand- 
ards; how does your holding fellowship with one 
r/ho does not profess to receive those standards, 
imply a desertion of them on your part? How 
does it attest your agreement in any matter save 
those great truths about which you are then con- 
versant, and to which your communion has re- 
spect? 

But were it indeed the case that participation 
la the sacraments amounted to a declaration of 
our agreement in the same ecclesiastical stand- 
ards, then must the churches be enormously 
guilty in making their standards so extensive and 
minpte. It is the commandment of the Lord 



136 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESU1.TS. 






that the "weak in the faith" should be received^ 
that "babes in understanding*' shall be admitted 
to his courts; and if the objection is a sound 
one, you must pair down your standards, you 
must moderate the effulgence of your glorious 
and lifcid testimonies to the truth of Godj for 
that which the labour of years has produced, \ 
ifeat which the research of generations has unfold- 
ed, that which the most enlightened of the 
ftthers have studiously put together, never can 
be an object for a babe to grasp, nor will any 
bonest man call him "weak in the faith," in the 
Apostle's sense of those words, w^ho is able to f> 
say of it with a good conscience, 'all this is 
agreeable to the word of God; to this I set my 
seaL'— But look about among your churches! 
How lew in them liave read, how very few are 
cfipable of fathoming those vast and pregnant 
productions which most evangelical churches 
licld up S3 the standards of their doctrine, and their 
testimony for trutli! They contain the substance 
of all the light of all the learned of every preceding 
age. Verily if no manis\vorthy the communion of 
the church Vvhose powers of research cannot fa- 
thom this; if no man may be acknowledged as 
a faithful brother, except he sets his seal to this; 
if no man can be safely regarded as a saint if he 
demurs at this,— then how fcv/ should be looked 
upon as entitled to the communion of the body of 
Christ! and how much fewer shall be saved 

And yet it must be acknou^edged that souic oi 
the churches, or at least considerable pi^riions oi' 
them, do go thus uir. Tliey do make "in appro 



UIE BODY or ClIRiST.— RESXTLT3. 1S7 

bation of the confession of fliith" and sundry 
other thinj^s, *'thc terms on which any person or 
persons shall be admitted as a member or mem- 
bers of their church;" and do use language v/hich 
strongly implies that such approbation is com- 
prised within their ^'terms of communion.'' But 
what then? The language thus employed evi- 
dently, and indeed declaredly, refers to the ad- 
mission of persons into full and regular standing 
in said church, not to the terms of intercommu- 
nion among various churches. But against the 
declaration, even as thus explained, there lie the 
most solid and weighty objections. No man,, 
we dare repeat it, who is *'weak m the faith," 
no man who is a child in the knowledge of the 
holy scriptures, no man who has not formed 
habits of readmg, reflection, and even of close 
thinking, — none of these persons evi^r can 
yield an intelHgent and well- founded expression of 
their approbation to the extent required. What 
then? You who dare require such a thing, con- 
tradict both the letter and the spirit of your own 
confession, by the very act that ostensibly does 
it honour: you lord it over the heritage of God; 
and in fixing a standard so high as will necessa- 
rily shut out FROM your church vast multi- 
tudes whom the Lord hath received, and bids 
you receive, you make void the lav/ of God by 
your traditions: you are guilty of the absurdity 
of fixing the same standard of acquisitions for 
him who is to be taught in all things and for himr 
who is to teach: you are compelled in practice to 
desert your own principles^ for ycu neither Jiavt 



i 



138 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS, 

nor could have a charch of anj'' reasonable extcnl 
constituted solely of members of this description. 
--It is very much to be lamented that the zeal of 
christians should so frequently outstrip their dis- 
cresion: and that in the application of ih^'ir pru- 
dence for the preservation of God's order in many 
things, they should themselves exhibit such la- 
mentable departure from it in things of greater 
consequence. Such siftings as this to preserve 
a church from the stains of heterodoxy, are not a 
whit more wise, not a jot more scriptural, and 
will not in any instance be found more success* 
ful, than the kindred attempts which fanaticism 
has repeatedly inspired to erect a communion 
** without spot or wrinkle.'' It is an attempt lo 
secure an object which we have no reason to be- 
lieve ever can be attained. And in thus endea- 
vouring to forestal the enemy, by picking out 
the tares before the seed is committed to the 
ground, no man need wonder if valuable grain 
should be likewise throwTi away. 

No: let your confessions but occupy their pro- 
per station. Let them be your "fixed testimony'' 
for the truth of Jesus Christ. Let them be the 
standards by which to try the doctrines of your 
clergy. Let them be a medium of deliverance 
to your people from the impositions of unsound 
and unchristian pastors. Let them be a source 
of perpetual instruction to all who have an op- 
portunity of studying them, till the feeble among 
your people become as David, and the house of 
David "as the angel of the Lord before them.** 
But n^ver imagine ttiat you are tq secure these 



1 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 139 



happy results by withholding from men the sym- 
bol of the bread and water of life, till they are 
&i\jis able two of them to chase ten thousand. 



NO. VI. 

There are few things in which the deceit of 
the human heart is more displayed, than in the 
application and interpretation of scripture. How- 
ever contrary a man's conduct may be to the 
moral law, or to his own professions, he is scarce- 
ly ever at a loss for an excuse — and an excuse 
too, apparently founded on some passiige of 
scripture. 

The beautiful unity of ''the body of Christ'^ 
has been much defaced by deceits of this kind. 
Every separatist, whether he goes by himself or 
takes along with him a number of others, or whe- 
ther he does what is still worse, drives good men 
from the communion of the church, sanctions 
all that he does or says by scripture..--Nor have 
we any disposition to call a large number of those 
offenders hypocrites, or wilful perverters of scrip- 
ture. We sincerely believe that a vast number 
of them are good honest naen, and arc really con- 
scientious in their application of scripture. Yet 
they are deceived, and they have been and are 
the instruments of deceiving others. 

Perhaps no passage of s^cripture has been as 
grossly abused in this way as the well known 



140 THE BODY OF CHRiaX.— RESULTS. 

words of our Lord: "Therefore, if thou bring 
thy gift to the altar, and there remeniberest that 
thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there 
thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first 
be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and 
ofter thy gift/' As an example of the abuse of 
this passage we beg leave to tell a short stoiy. 

Many years ago, in a respectable and flourish- 
ing congregation, at a considerable distance from 
the woods of Kentucky, on a Saturday morning 
before the communion, an eider whose name was 
William, called a member of the church aside 
whose name was George, and thus addressed 
him: ''George, I thought you the other day ma- 
nifested a disposition to take the advantage of 
neighbour Marshal, and procure from him his 
patch of oats at an under value." Says George, 
''you may have thought so, but I was not con- 
scious of having any such disposition. I only said 
I did not think the oats would measure so much 
as you said they would." "Ah no, George," 
says William, 'Hhat won't do; you certainly in- 
tended to cheat Marshal out of five or six bushels 
of oats; and you must not apply at this time till 
the matter is settled- --for, George, you know 
that if you bring your gift to the altar, and there 
rememberest that your brother hath ought against 
you, you are to leave your gift, and go and be 
reconciled to your brother, and then come and 
offer your gift." *'Since you say so, William, 
I can stand back at this time — yet, were I to in- 
sist on my privilege^ I think you could not keep 
me from it" 



THE BODY Or CHRIST.—PvESULTS. 141 

The origin of^this difference was shortly this: 
Neighbour Marshal had sold to the brother of 
George, a small lot of oats as they stood, r\t so 
much per bushel, and William was to say what 
]uantity of oats the lot contained. On the morn- 
ing on which William was to give his judgment, 
George had accompanied his brother to the place, 
•nd had been there sometime before William ar- 
rived. The conversation having turned on the 
business of the morning, George had expressed 
his opinion respecting the quantity, and William 
having fixed on a larger quantity, George adher- 
ed to his ov»^n judgment, and perhaps also said, 
.hat if he had been to receive the oats, he v/ould 
not have taken them at William's estimate. Yet 
ibr this George was denied admittance to the 
Lord's table a week or two after, and tlie text 
before us was the authority under v/hich the of- 
deer of the church acted. 

Now who was in this case the injured person? 
The elder who excluded or die private member 
vvho v/as excluded? No person who has not 
iome private purpose to serve but v/ill, we arc 
jold to say, unite in saying that the elder was 
!he offender, and that George was unjustly de- 
prived of his priviledge---Vv^as in fact suspended 
rom the communion of the church. Yet the el- 
ler we are persuaded acted what is called con- 
scientiously; i. e. he was regulated by scripture, 
aid was not conscious of misapplying the text. 
Xay such is and has been the force of habit, that 
iiad the excluded member appealed from his el- 
der to the session, \veare ptfrsuaded that that ses- 



: 42^ THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULXS, 

6:on, consisting of twelve or fourteen intelligent 
and pious elders^ with a clergyman of considerable 
standing at their head, would have confirnied 
the exclusion* 

We only add, that when' the oats were thr^shr- 
ed but, it was found that William's judgment 
was not beyond the mark; and that by the next 
time the subject was discussed, George and 
William were perfectly reconciled. In a year 
or two after George sickened and died; but died 
very comfortably: William and other christian 
neighbours accompanying his departing spirit to 
the very gates of glory by their prayers^ and 
praises. ---But had George been of a turbulent 
disposition, and when he was kept back from 
the table of the Lord, insisted on the matter be- 
ing fully investigated, and complete justice ren- 
?ciidcred to him, it is easy to see how the peace 
of the church would have been disturbed. 

Perhaps few of our readers will be at a loss to 
Snd examples of congregations being much hurt, 
and in some cases almost destroy^ed by a similar 
perversion of scripture. The minister, or an 
alder, or sc.e leading man in the congregation 
takes an offence at the conduct or opinion of an 
another member of the church, and will not suf- 
fer him to have communion, till he gives what 
be calls satisfaction, and pleads as his authority 
the text before us. The excluded member per- 
haps bears for a while, but at last he turns on his 
heel, with, Well, well, since it is so, you may 
have your church, and your communion table, 
:and even your religion too, .u yourself for mc. ^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 143 

Vnd thus our churches are left empty, and the 
neighbourhood filled with half mfidels. 

To wari-ant the application against which 'we 
are contending, the text ought to have read thus: 
** Wherefore if thou seest thy brother bringing 
bis gift to the altar, and there remembcrest that 
thou hast ought against thy brother, force him to 
hy dovv'n his gift, and go and be reconciled to 
thee, or to thy friend, and then allov/ him to come 
and offer his gift.'' Do w^e shudder at such a 
perversion of scripture.^ Tl)en let us never hear 
the t€>:t offered as it has been. 

But what is the meaning of the text, and what 
is its use? Read it as it was uttered by our Lord, 
Mat- v. 23 and 24. 

It is plain that this text is addressed to the of- 
fender and the offender only. It is not addressed 
to the person who has received the injury, far 
less to the person who only supposes that he or 
some of his frinds are injured. It can be a rule 
of duty consequently only to the offender, it can 
never be a mle of duty to a second or third per- 
son. 

Every person approaching God's alter is here 
solemnly oilled to the duty of self examination — 
and if upon this examination he is convinced 
that he has mjured any one of his fellow men, he 
is to leave his gift aiid go and offer toliis injured 
brother, a reasonable satisfaction. If the satisfac- 
tion is accepted the matter is at an end — but if 
it is not accepted the guilt now lies on the per- 
son who has refused a reconciliation — not on the 
person who. has made an i^ttear-pt to be rtcon- 
cried. 



144 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS- 

We are indeed to be our brothers keeper ab 
vvell as our own, and it is the particular duty of 
chur-ch oilicers, to be active in keeping back the 
ignorant and the scandalous, from tlie seals of 
the covenant. But the text under review has_ 
no reference to such cases. It is a general rule 
for every man to take care of himself- — and see 
that HIS OWN dispobitians are such as the head 
of the church will approve. 

We may have our suspicions of the right 
which this or the other fellov/ worshipper has to 
the enjovment of certain privileges, — we may 
even have in our possession considerable proof 
that he is a very unworthy p3rtaker,~but till 
%ve can substantiate a charge before an orderly 
-court of the church, we have no right to say, 
that that man shall not enjoy the ordinance — the 
man who does so, let him be member or elder, 
or who you will, is to all intents and purposes, 
^'jHE POPE, the Anti'chr'istJ^'^ — Every man is 
lo be considered innocent till he is on legal evi- 
dence convicted of guilt. , 

Another misapplication of the text may be 
fiOticed. A member of the church fails in get- 
ting a member w^hom he considers imw^orthy ex- 
cluded — or he has not an apportunity of using 
any mcan^ for the exclusion of a member whom 
he considers unworthy, therefore he himstll stays 
back. '*If that member," says he -^s admitted 
I will not partake." And the text before us is 
frequently pled as justification for such with- 
drawment 
To warrant their withdrawmentj the text i^ould 



I 



m 



THE BODY 6V CHRIST.— RESULTS. 145 



cad tluis. ''If thou bringest thy gift to the altar, 
mcl there secst thy brother against whom thou 
last something, about to offer his gift — leave thy 
',111 I^y the altar, and presume not to oAIt thy 
'(\i\ till that objcetionable brother is some way 
r other removed." Hiive we any such serip- 
viire? Will any thing less thu!\ this justify tlic 
•. idulrawment supposed? 

Wc repeat it — the text under review has no 
reference at all to the conduet of another i)erson- 
It applies solely to your oivn conduct, and your 
own dispositions. See that they be right. In die 
j)resent case it is not supposed \\\\\X you have of- 
fended or in other words, injured the unwoithy 
member. You are thereiore so lar as this text 
is concerned to attend upon God's ordinan- 
ces as if no such unworthy member were pre- 
sent Do yoii suppose that the pure are pointed 
by partaking with the individual who ought to 
be excluded? Then our Lord, as has been sliewn 
in another section of these essays, must have been 
poluted, in holding communion with the cor- 
rupted and corrupting members of the Jewish 
church. Imitate our Lord's example. Nt gleet 
no opportunity of testifying against corruption 
in principle or practice. But at the same time 
aho keep \ our place in he church. Attend upon 
all God's ordinances. Pray that a blessing may 
rest upon Goci's own doctrines — God's own wor- 
ship, luid God's own government. And v\hilc 
you thus use your little strength, and waik in 
your litUe light, the head of the church will ^;ivc 
more light and more r. i.^jUi, and through yon 



146 THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 

and others, more perfectly purge his church. 

But, '^can txvo walk together except they ar€ 
agreedV^ Amos iii. 3. The advocates oi re- 
stricted communion are certainly put to their 
shifts when they urge this text. Can a church, 
can a neighbourhood, can even a family, or any 
society be produced, where the members are ex- 
actly agreed in all things. My wife and I diifer 
very widely, about the character of a considera- 
ble number of our acquaintances, yet we cordi- 
liUy agree in loving one another, in loving the 
children whom God hath graciously given us, 
and generally in all the arrangements which are 
necessary for the welfare of the family. I have 
one neighbour who is a Roman Catholic; an- 
other who is a Methodist; and a third who is of 
the same communion with myself. We have 
thus very little religious intercourse with one 
another, yet in every thing else, we are comforta- 
ble neighbours. We cordially agree in politics, 
which in tkese days is a great matter; we agree 
in endeavouring to have good roads and good : 
fences, in the neighbourhood; and in vying with J 
one another in raising good crops and good cat- I 
tie. In some of the churches we find individuals, 
who maintain that it is a moral duty to have 
slaves, and realy a tin X.o attempt to have the 
state of these unhappy creatures changed. The 
most of their brethren differ very widely from 
them in this important article; yet they can mu- 
tually forbcai* on tiiis point; The doctrine of 
slavery breeds no disturbance in their church 
lo^irtSj nor at their communion tables. ButTrbeB 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 147 

a noted individual of one church presumes to sit 
down at the Lord's table with the members of 
another, who give all the evidence that can be 
given that they are united to our one and common 
heady the man who pleads for the divine autho- 
rity of slavery, unites with the man who main- 
taines, that it is a gross violation of almost every 
principle in the decalogue, and both cry out, 
^*the church is destroyed — the faith is given up 
- — all order is at an end." Your proof fathers and 
brethren.^ Can two walk together except they 
are agreed.^ 

To cut the matter short, let us apply this di- 
vine and very much perverted maxim to the ho- 
ly ordinance of the supper. When we obseiTe 
this ordinance aright we have sweet communion 
with one another, and sweet communion with 
otir common head — and in order to have this 
communion we must be agreed. But in what? 
Agreed that ever}^ thing which is stated in a 
lengthy publication called a Testimony is matter 
of fact? Agreed that the ant i- burgher brethren 
performed a very reasonable and important duty 
v;hen they excommunicated their burgher bre- 
thren? Agreed that the prayers of Almighty God 
cannot be acceptably sung unless we use Rouse's 
version of the Psalms of David? Agreed that 
there is only one connection cf ministers who 
can be acknowledged as in all things faithful? 
Ah no, no such agreements are necessary for the 
worthy partakers of the Lord's supper. 

What are the great and leading doctrines of 
:he gospel which are recognized in the ordinance 



148 TIIE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

of the supper? That we are lost sinners — that 
there is no salvation but through the vicarious 
death of IraiTianuel---and that we, as individuals, 
are resolved to receive this crucified Saviour as 
our own, and live and die by faith in his blood. 
Does our creed embrace these articles.^ Does 
our conduct correspond to our profession? We 
are then agreed as to the nature and use of the 
ordinance of the supper: we may therefore walk 
together to the table where the solenm rites are 
tp be performed* 

Again.. ..What is it that gives a sinner a light 
to the table of the Lord? Nothing but an in- 
terest in this Lord, or union to him as his new 
covenant head. Will any man dare to say, that 
this^ union supposes any thing like an agreen*ent 
on all that we comprehend under the phrase, the 
doctrine, the worship, the government, and dis- 
cipline of the Associate Reformed, or Seceding, 
or Covenanters, or general assembly Presbyte- 
rian, church? If he does he must also maintain, 
that there is not a single believer v/ithout the 
pale of his ov/n particular church. But if union 
to our Lord as the living head is that and that 
only vv^hich gives a right to a seat at the Lord's 
table, all wI>o agree in having this right may and 
ought to walk together to the table, however 
much they may differ in other matters. 

The manner in which the text under consi-- 
deration has been wielded in the controversy a- 
bout communion, has brought to our remeni- 
brance the birth and life and death of a sect, who 
some fifty or sixty yeirs ago, made a little noisr 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 149 

in some part of the world. The members of 
this sect were in their own opinion the only 
chvirch; they were also all believers. It was also 
a fundamental article in their creed, that nothing 
could be done in a church capacity, unless it was 
done with one accord. Their scripture proof was 
Act. if. 1 and 46; That is^ the whole church 
were to be agreed before* any thing could be 
doue. For a few months this pure society made 
out pretty well,, but a diversity of opinion got 
among'* them as well as among other people. 
And what was to be done? The church could 
not act, for the scripture was plain and express 
in requiring that aH should be done with one qcr 
cord. And yet the church mu^t act or she was 
good for nothing. 

To keep out* of this difficulty^ it was suggest- 
ed, that the Spirit was to continue with the church- 
till the end of time; and that all believers were 
tsrught and led by the Spirit, and must at all 
times and in all places be of one rr}ind. Henc^e 
the minoritij in the church could not be believers, 
and consequently, according to another funda,- 
moital article, not members. By this argument 
the church indeed got on with her business; but 
on every division, the minority were, ipspfacto^ 
excommunicated. In a short time the church 
was so purged that there remained only two 
members. These were one day sitting together, 
and were mutually lamenting over the apostacy 
of the times. One ventured to say, that he^Jrar- 
ed the church would soon perish. The other im- 
mediately declared him an unbeliever^ and by the 

N 2 



ISO THE BODY" Of CHUiST.— RESULTS. 

authority of the church excommunicated him-- - 
ior the scripture was piain and express m stating 
that the church was founded on a rock, nvA that 
the gates of hell should not prevail agamst her. 

Comparisons are generally odious, butpciiods 
arrive when we are bound to speak, and write, 
and prmt what we think. We must then say, 
that the disposition which has prevailed, and 
which has been cherished for at least one gene- 
ration, in almost all the Protestant churches, is 
a disposition not much different from that which 
actuated this association. And it is a disposi- 
tion which has a natural tendency to narrow the 
church of the living God, and to crumble down 
into atoms the most flourishing society. On 
every little difference we separate, and my opi- 
nion is just as good as yours,^ and I can have a 
church just as well as you can. We cannot 
walk together because we are not agreed. Nor 
can we offer our gifts at the same altar, because 
you won't give me satisfaction for some suppos- 
ed offence. And the sum of the whole matter 
is, our own humour or our own prejudices are 
to be gratified; and every other thing, even God's 
ordinances, and the plain and natural meaning 
of scripture are to be rejected, when they do not 
harmonize with them. 



f 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RES JLTS. 151 

No. VIL 
RESULTS. 

/\VHA'r then are the legitimate grounds, and 
who are tlie proper objc cts of discipline? li'errors, 
if what we judge to be violatioiici of the law of 
God, are not to cut oiF the oifcnder from our fel- 
lowship, v\ here are Zion's ramparts.^ What are 
our defences, and the defences of our little ones, 
against th^ disorders among which our let may- 
be cast? What> in one word, i^s the use of church 

courts at all?' Such may be supposed to be 

difficulties that wul naturally and conniwizhj pre- 
sent themselves to the raass of those to whom 
the foregoing exposition is new. They must 
learn to distinguish. In very many iasUmces- 
those errors and irregularities must be ma.ttera 
of absolute forbearance. This is a duty repeat- 
edly enjoined by the. Apostle upon christians 
who found fault with one another's views and 
practices. Forbearance, it has justly been re- 
marked, does not relate to thi]igs indifferent^ but 
to those which are supposed to be injurious and 
sinfuh The idei\ of exercising this christian vir- 
tue towards a brother w^io is only using his liber- 
Ly in a way which you cannot condem, but be- 
cause in things indifferent he follows his own 
pleasure rather than yours, is supremely ridicu- 
lous. The Apostle enjoins it under circustan- 
ces in which the parties severally held oneanother 
to be ill the wrong; and in which one of them, at 



ioi; THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

least, was looked upon by the other as violating 
the laws of God. The Apostle decides indeed 
in that case that the thing was in itself indiffer- 
ent; but at the same time, seeming not to ex- 
pect their acquiescence in his judgment, he leiis 
them '4et every man be fully persuaded in nis 
own mind:" and he shuts up the discussion by 
referring them to that tribunal where alone such' 
controversies can be finally and profitably settled: 
'nvhy dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost 
thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all 
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Let 
us not therefore judge one another any more; but 
judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling 
block, or an occasion to fall, in his brotlui?^ 
way.*" The very flict of men's presuming to 
judge and conelemn a brother, and the instruc- 
tions here given them, rather to submit the case 
to him that judgeth righteously, equally prove to 
us that the tilings in controversy must have been 
regarded as questions of sin and duty, referable 
to the word of God. Whatsoever things were 
written aforetime were written for our instruction; 
and it becomes us to remember that as we have 
not, like those Romans, an apostle at our elbow, 
we are doubly obligated to pursue the same 
course. But at the same time we are to beware 
of the peril of using this our liberty unwarranta- 
bly; for though the apostle called not upon the 
proper authorities in the Roman church to cen- 
sure the stumbler of his christian brethren in 

^ Horn* xiv. 



rUE BODY OF CHllIST.— EESULi S. i2& 

such event, yet he puts him m mind that the^ 
Lord is judge: his decisions are not idlco The 
difficuhy then about censures in a church, pro- 
ceeds, in vay many cases, upon a false assumption. 
The fact is that many modern churches are l)y 
far too free as well as too rapid in their censures' 
about matters of opinion. We appeal to apos- 
tolic precedent and precept — we appeal to the 
dealings of our Lord Jesus Christ wdth his slow-*" 
hciirted and often erring followers; a?id then ic 
may be trumpeted in the face of heaven and 
earth, that the churches very often and very un- 
warrantably array, in all the solemnities of judicial" 
process, multitudes of cases which never rvere 
made the subjects of any other kind of deaUng; 
than private exhortation, instruction, or rebuke. 
Paul could call upon his youthful associates ta 
rebuke, and that ''sharply,'^ on the ground of 
their individual ministerial authority: he could 
bid them ''reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all 
long'Si^ffei'ing^'^^ as well as ''doctrine.'^ And all 
this without once suggesting that it w^as proper, 
in those kinds of cases, for the husbandman to 
be impatient for the fruits, and to subject his 
trees to the wintry cultivation of the green- house, 
the scorching operations of judicial process, pro- 
vided the sun of righteousness himself did not 
speedily shed his influence to invigorate those 
plants. Here then is your mistake; — yourdiffi- 
iculty about bringing matters to the desired con- 
clusion is of your own creating: you have no 
right to urge the matter to such a conclusion. — 
You are to bear with the infirmity of your brother. 






154 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

and try all the methods of caution, instruction^ 
and reproof. Unless liis malady increases tc3r 
something of a much more threatning aspect, it 
is all you are called upon to do. The anxious 
assimilation of the church of Christ to the ways 
and maxims of the world, and the consequent 
zeal to ape the spirit and regulations of civil 
courts, have generated much of the mischiefs 
that distract her. These are (at least in part) the 
things that cherish a spirit of boundless litigation, 
and under the guise of a love of order, unifor» 
mity and truth, have seldom generated any thing, 
else than 

^•Gorgons» and Hydras, and Chimeras dire." 

The above remarks, however, do not apply to alt 
the matters of dispute with which christians may 
be conversant, or to all the irregularities of pro- 
fessors which may fall under their observation. 
ITiere are obviously multitudes of departures 
from the law of God, about which there neither 
is nor can be any division of sentiment among 
truly christian men: there are others not less dis- 
graceful, and not less dangerous in some cases, 
which may be ignorantly disregarded, or stub- 
bornly disputed by a fev/ back -sliding churches, 
professors of very questionable character, and 
probably other individuals under the influence 
of strong temptation; but the precision with 
which they are noticed in the word of God, and 
the destructive consequences with which they 
are attended, may in all ages and under all cir- 
cumstances readily point them out to the atten- 
tion of the church at large. No man, for instance. 



iHE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 15^. 

is at a loss to distinguish murders and revelings, 
adulteries and thefts, in the prohibitions of the 
scripture; and in general all those points which 
fall under the denomination of imm.oral conduct, 
are so recognized by all christians, and by most 
other men whose consciences arc at all enlighten- 
ed by the word of God. The same thing may 
be said of the great truths and duties, peculiarly 
^nd eminently christian. They are written as 
V ith a sun beam; hardly any body, except deter- 
mined heritics, ranks them among "doubtful 
disputaions.' Obviously then, a breach of duty 
or corruption of principle in these respects, is of 
a character entirely different from every thing 
that is ordinarily to be supposed in the cases 
before spoken of. He who, while a wearer of 
the christian name, indulges in the courses which 
he himself, as well as all the world, acknow- 
ledges to be sinful, is certainly to be regarded 
in a very diSerent light, and therefore to be treat- 
ed in a very different manner, from the man 
who conscientious yet misled, obstinate ) et sin- 
cere, gracious yet perplexed by doubtful dispu- 
tations, errs in his views of many minor prin- 
ciples laid down for our direction in the word 
of God. In the latter case the conscience needs 
to be enlightened, in the former it needs to be 
anBused: in the one there is required the Ian- 
guage of instruction and the patience of love; in 
the other the language of reproof, and if this be 
insufficient *'therod for the fooPs back." More- 
over, a thousand blunders in the dark, uiid a 
^ousand mistakes in arranging our views o^ 



II 



I 

IS6 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESCLTI ^ 

truth, i^e perfectly consistent, not only with sm- 
cerity, but With grace; but sin persevered in, 
sill uiirvjxnted of, sin still rolled as a sweet mor- 
sel under the tongue, bv those who ''know the 
master's will, vet do if not,^^ is a strong evidence 
of a reprobate Viihid. In this case judicial pro- 
cess itself is either a mean of recovery, or a dis- 
cc; T.r of the rottenness of the heart; and every 
con^Aderation demands that the man should be 
cut oS^whoseevidences of connexion v/ith the liv- 
ing headv^^^t ^t least so very doubtful, and who 
manifests by perseverance in known iniquity, and 
a refusal to repent, that he loves his sins more 
than he loves his master and the privileges of his 
church. 

The same remarks may be made with respect 
to erroneous professors. There are obviously.^ 
many who wear the name of Christ, while theyj 
hold and avow principles absolutely incompati- 
ble with the profession which they make. If 
then a man or a church avowedly builds upon 
the sand, you have no reason for proceeding with 
them as if they built upon the rock. If they do 
not profess to ''hold the head,'^ but to look for 
salvation in some other way, you have no right 
to acknowledge, but are bound to deny their title 
to the privileges of the christian church. How 
can you hold christian fellowship with those who 
hold not their feliow^ship with the Father and the 
Son? How can you extend the symbols of that 
salv^ition t< sinners from whom the salvation 
ittsHf is i^? To do so would be to acl-^tv- 
iedgc their cnrisciaiiity, and so to merge the truth^ 



HE feODV OF CHKlSt.— RESULTS. 157 

in darkness, and to lay stumbling blocks before 
t1ie world. Here indeed they may be sincere 
enough, zealous enough, nohy enough; but it is 
christiamty alone that entitles men to the privi- 
liges of a christian; aiid if their own doctrines 
condemn them, if they foiind their hope in fal- 
lacies — their building on the sand, you must 
deal w^ith them as sinners \vho yet need God^s 
salvation, apd not as saints who are made par- 
takers of it. Possibly indeed some of them may 
be christians after all; but then you cannot pene- 
trate their hearts; you must determine according 
to the evidence before you. 

The rule, therefore, in both the cases we have 
review^ed is one: **nov%^ I have written unto you 
not to keep company, if any man that is called 
a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an 
idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extor- 
tioner; with such an one no Not to isat.*'' 
''A man that is an heretic, after the first and se- 
cond admonition reject. "f There are men 
"having the form of godliness, but denying the 
power thereof: from such withdraw thy- 
SELF. "J Finally: "Whosoever transgresseth and 
abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not 
God: he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, 
he hath both the Father and the Son. If there 
come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, 
receive him not into your house, neither bid him 
God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is 
partaker of his evil deeds. ''§ The reader will re- 

* I Cor. V. 1 1. t Titus, iii. 10, \% Tim. iu. 2—5. 
§ 2 Jtbn % 10. 



IBS THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

collect the discrimination on this subject, to which 
we have been helped by Dr. Owen. He will 
distinguish for himself who it is that *^abideth 
not in the doctrine of Christ,"and therefore '^hath 
not God.'' He may learn at his leisure from ma- 
ny other sources who are the heretics — the per- 
sons who desert the fundamentals of Christianity. 
We iiave room at present only to remark, that 
the common error consists in blending things 
which the Holy Ghost, and the uniform practice 
of our Lord and his Aposdes, kept perfectly dis- 
tinct: inputting the mistakes, ignorance and mis- 
conceptions of the conscientious christian upon the 
very same footing with the ''damnable heresies" 
of men wKo denied ''the Lord that bought them.'' 
It is likewise wordiy of remark, that we are to 
hold ourselves at a much greater distance from 
persons who are ejected for false doctrine or un- 
holy conduct, than from "the world that lieth in 
wickedness." For in the one case it is said that "if 
any of them that believe not, bid you to a feast, and 
ye be disposed to go," your christian profession 
imposes no restraint, you may lawfully go*; nay, 
you may lawfully have intercourse with "the 
fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or 
extortioners, or with idolaters:"!- -but with a pro- 
fessor whose errors or crimes separate you from 
his communion, you are to have no sort of fellow- 
ship, "fw, not to eatj^^ — no, not to ^^receive him 
into your hause^ neither bid him God speed; for 
)Xi so doing you make yourself a partaker of his 

* I Cor. X. 27. Ibid v. 9, 10. 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 159 

evil deeds. ^^ How, some persons and churches 
can neglect this part of God's ordinance, while 
they are so over rigorous about the other — can 
become partakers of men's evil deeds from whom 
they should utterly withdraw, while to escape 
pollution they separate from others from whom 
God never commanded them to separate at all, 
can abridge tlie list of crimes, and increase the 
scroll of heresies, let him that runneth read. — 
Happy the man who esteems all God's com- 
mandments, concerning all things^ to be right! 

We enter, however, into no discussion of this 
subject. It falls not either within the plan or 
limits prescribed for this essay* The sugges- 
tions that have been dropped arc intended solely 
to deliver from the imputation of undervaluing, 
or setting aside the legitimate exercises of dis- 
■ cipline in the church, of God* Let that discip- 
line be vigourous as you please; but let it be di- 
rected to legitimate objects and conducted in a 
scriptural manner. It is the abuse not the use, 
the perversion not the exercise of the authority 
delegated from God the Saviour, against v/hich 
we are constrained so warmly to obtest. We 
I have therefore, but one more remark upon this 
i subject and it shall be dismissed. It is this: 
that even the ejection of men of corrupt conduct, 
or of heretical principles, can be only your duty 
when the power is in your hands; and that if the 
power be with them, it does not by any means 
follow that you are to withdraw yourself from 
die communion of the church to which you are 
both attached. In the first instance^ having th"^- 



160 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RE&ULTS. 

power, you are bound to employ it for the cor* 
yection of the abuse; in the latter case you have 
9nly the power to testify against the evil, and to 
teep away from it yourself; and to that only you 
are bound. This was all that was enjoined on 
the purer part of Sardis and Thyatira; all that 
was expected from the faithful in Galatia, (if any 
such remained;) and all that our Lord himself 
did ia.the Jewish church, most of whose mem- 
bers were as vile in conduct, and, idolatry ex^ 
cepted, as heretical in doctrine as ever was the 
church of Rome. Let persons who are for 
iioisting the signals for division at every little 
difference of practice or opinion, let men v/hose 
seal in a particular controversy magnifies into 
heroism the ill-tempered, ill-informed procedure 
9f every whisperer and schismatic that abets them, 
let such men think of the procedure of our Lord 
Jesus Ciirist, while among the minority in the 
Vv'orst of churches, and let them hide their heads 
ibr shame. "^ 



* TliC following extracts from Mr. Boston's sermon 
oil schism will serve to evince that even in these strong 
and imtashionable sentimentr> the writer is by no means 
ungiilar. They are here introcKiced for the double 
purpose cf countenancing the sentiments sketched in 
the above, and of backing the still more distende* 
views of christian duty with respect to the errors and 
practices of sm:tller consequence, \yhich have been 
submitted in tlie preceding number. It had been in- 
tended to introduce those which follow, together with 
3everal others from Nealc.at an earlier period; but as 
'hey were not necessary to the argument itself, want 
of room has hitherto excluded all, as it must slill exi. 
^t-ide the most of them. Tiiose which we propor^o her€i 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 16 i 

On the merits of this controversy we have 
nothing more to offer. It will doubtless suggest 
itself to every thinking mind that even upon ad- 
mitting the doctrine here advocated to be cor- 
rect, the "charity which edifieth'' would not 

to introduce are as follow: "I will follow Christ to the 
synagogue of the Jews, (I hope some of you at least, 
may understand what I say,) and in so doing I will be 
more strict than these that scruple to follow Christ's 
example, for fear they may be involved in the guilt of 
the corruptions among them; for the nearer I follow 
Christ, the more strict I am, if strictness be measured 
according to the word of God.'* "But so it is that our 
dissenters do thus reject communion with us, and se- 
parate from us, while, in the mean time, they might 
keep communion with this church without sin, — there* 
fore their separation is schism, and they are schisma- 
tics. That they might keep communion with us with- 
out sin,, that is, ivithout involving themselves in the 
guilt of the corruptions of the Churchy will appear, if 
ye consider, that there are no corruptions among us, 
whether real or pretended, which the €hurch OBLIG- 
ETH THEM TO APPROVE, OR JOIN IN THE 
PRACTICE OF, as terms of communion^ vtith her:- 
nor is there any real or pretended truth which they 
own, thatAhe Church obligeth them to RENOUNCE,, 
as a term of communion with hen" From these two 
facts, that dissenters were not forced to own any thing 
which they did not believe, nor yet to renounce any 
thing which they did believe, but would have been per- 
niitted to hold their own views of things, and to prac- 
tice accordingly, where they were in circumstances to 
do it, Mr* Boston infers that thfey not only sinned in 
keeping back from the fellowship of saints in the esta* 
blished church of Scotlaiid, but were downright schis- 
matical. After saying that they might h^ve always 
protested against every thing amiss, and informing us 
by the way that ministers only were bound to own the 
•^xmfession of faith iii order to admission, (a cgauiieud-^ 



162 THE BODY OF CHRIST.—RESULTS. 



1 



suggest the immediate adoption of it in practice 
toihe extent it will bear, as a thing commenda-. 
ble in all places and under all circumstances.— 
The ordinances of grace, like the Sabbath, were 
made for man, not man for them. And con- 
sidering what has been so long the view and 
practice of the churches in many places, chris- i 
tian principle will dictate attempts to enlighten || 
rather than to drive. But that delay which may ' 
be proper in some portions of a church, may 
be ^together needless in others. In every place 

able distinction, and still kept up, we believe, in that 
church, as also under the burgher synod,) he goes on 
to say: "It remains then that they may keep commu- 
nion with us without sin, unless mere joining' in com^ 
Tnunion in a church^nv herein there are many corrufitions^ 
3e a ain^ and defile a man. To this narrow point I 
think the controversy betwixt them and us is brought: 
this I take to be the very foundation of the separation, 
which if it fall, all falls together with it: AND THAT 
THIS IS A GROSS UNTRUTH, I shall evince by 
tw« arguments/' Mr. Boston's t%i*o arguments are 
drawn from the case of Thyatira in Rev. ii. and from 
the conduct of our Lord as recorded in Luke iv. 16. 
Under the first he says, "In the church of Thyatira 
Jezebel was suffered to teach and seduce Christ's ser^ 
vants; for suffering her the angel is reproved, and con- 
sequently called upon to amend this fault." But "///e 
fiarty that kefit themselves fiure are not required to 
'aefiarate; nay in effect ARE COMMANDED TO 
CONTINUE IN THE COMMUNION OF THAT 
CHURCH, while the Lord expressly tells them. He 
'.oill lay no other burden ufion them^ but commands 
them "to hold fast," to keep themselves pure. This 
could not have been, if their keeping <?ommunion with 
the Church of Thyatira, in which there were such 
gfoss corruptions, and corrupt members, had been a 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 163 

and on either hand prudence must determine: 
^'He that cateth eateth to the Lord: — and ht that 
eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not.'' Those 
demands upon one church or one country, to 
wait the progress of another's Hght and the per- 
fecting another's Uberty,before they use their own^ 
are extremely childish and petulant, not to say, 
excessively imperious. Charity itself will dic- 
tate most infallibly the manner and time: if cha- 
rity be lacking, no system of rules can be made 
so lucid or so full as to answer in its stead. — 
It is presumed, however, that in churches 
' which have the advantage of every necessary 
mean of instruction, no christian duty should be 
very long delayed, in compliance with dieir op,. 

sin.** The other argument is managed in the same 
way. In concluding Mr. Boston says, "let them that 
would find' this point more largely proved consult Ru-. 
therford*s fieaceable plea for fires 6yferyy2i.nd JDur/iam 
on scandal and on the Revelations^ both proving this 
point against the separatists of their time." 

LET SEPARATISTS HEARll Who are the sup- 
porters and who the oppo&ers of the ancient faith and 
practice of the churches? We are obliged to be con- 
tent with referring the reader to Boston., Boston tells 
his readers that they will find the same views stated at 
large by Rutherford and Durham, Now, it is very 
true that they intreduced these arguments "against 
the separatists of their time," and not on the contro- 
versy now before the reader: but let the reader re* 
member that they ADOPT THE. PRINCIPLES j 
they say THE VIEW IS SOUND. And. if this be 
so, the reader has no reason to complain of the appli- 
cation of them by us to a different controversy. But 
he may try, if he pleases, to evade their force— he may 
shew, if he can, that they are misapplied. 



164 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULtS; 

pojyition or backwardness to adopt it. Much 
less may any man who sees it to be duU% and 
whose busihess it is to point it out to others, de- 
lay this obvious and ever- imperious duty, be- 
cause the churches lack the light upon that sub-1 ' 
ji£ct, which it has therefore become his business 
to strike up. This folding of the hands and cry- 
ing, *^the time is not yet come, the people are 
ilot ready^" when used as a dissuasive from at- 
tempts to make them ready, is cowardice instead 
of prudence, is unfaithfulness instead of charity; 
^nd deserves the reprobation of every honest 
ijian. Doubtkss when the proper means have 
been used for a proj^r length of time, and of 
that the prudence of the party can be the only 
judge, it becom.es men however few, to act ac- 
cording to their light. If the mountains still re- 
main immovable on every hand, if the Red sea be 
before them, if the host of the Egyptians press 
behind; let them not ahvays stand and cry to 
God; let them ''speak unto the people that they 
go forward." 

The revival of this ancient and extensive com- 
munion of the saints, however diverse their sen- 
timents in matters of subordinate moment, is 
certainly one among the striking features that 
characterize the present period. While God is 
pouring forth his fury upon the old destroyer; 
while he is shedding the light of truth upon 
those valleys of the shadow of death, the lands 
of paganism under every clime; while he is re- 
viving his cause in many churches whose lamps 
jivere almost out; while he is distributing his 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 165 

word in almost every language under heaven; he 
iS likewise taking measures to unite more close- 
ly the hearts and efforts of his people, by draw- 
ing them to the open acknowledgment and more 
intimate feeling of their common relation to their 
common Lord: and thereby also distinguishing 
them as a body from heretics and from the world. 
It is worthy of remark that the first annual meet- 
ing (if we mistake not it was \h^ first) of that 
missionary society in England, whose formation 
has been the birth of so many blessings to Eu- 
rope and the world, was marked by such a com- 
munion, in which all its members, from various 
denominations, joined. "This day we bury 
BIGOTRY,'^ said the heaven-taught tongue of 
him who distributed the symbols of their com- 
mon hope; and from that auspicious hour the- 
memorials of the monster have perished day by 
day. 

When we can see the same spirit of approx - 
imation kindled in the west, there will be ground 
to expect not only the termination of ''backslid- 
ing and bitterness," but such a calm comparison 
of sentiments as shall assimilate our views; such 
a junction of all tie faithful, that the heretic, the 
careless and the unbeliever, shall be compelled 
to notice, and all others to discern, the bounda- 
ries w^hich separate them; and such a union of 
hearts, and interests, and efforts, as may adorn 
mir profession, chase away our sorrows, and fa- 
cilitate, in every respect, our labours and our 
comforts, till at length ''we all come in the unity 
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 



166 THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 

God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of 
the stature of the fulness of Christ/' 



No. viir. 

RESULTS. 

The elucidation and defence of the preceding^ 
deduction have been extended to a much greater 
length than was originally designed, and indeed 
swell far beyond all reasonable proportion. If any 
apology can be admitted as sufficient for this 
breach of rules, it must be that the novelty as 
well as importance of the subject imposed a ne- 
cessity for minute discussion. It would not, 
however, be at all strange if the reader, in wading 
*' .ough an argument so long and varied, should 
nave in a great measure lost sight of the original 
principles upon which these deductions are fram- 
ed. We must therefore beg leave to call his at- 
tention again to the declared and acknowledged 
principles of federal representation; and especial- 
ly to those corollaries in pages 33 — 37, which 
have been deduced from the discussions of the 
second number. It is there, among other things, 
inferedthat "the constant flux of individuals ne- 
ver affects the standing of the body:'' that "what- 
ever be the actual limitation as to the number of 
individuals comprised in any association, or vvhat= 
ever be the intention of the head of the associa-^ 



'i IIE BODY OF CHRIST.--nESULT3. 161 

lion relative to such limitation, the system itself 
is capable of embracing individuals without num- 
4Der:'^ and finally, that ''not only theAvhole body 
is identified with the head of a system, such as 
we have had in our view, but every individual 
member, every constituent portion of that body 
is thus identified." Taking with us these prin- 
ciples, as detailed and illustrated in the pages re- 
fered to, we proceed to state as 

A SECOND DEDUCTION from the foregoing 
display of the imputative principle, that the diffi- 
culties with which the questions of the extent of 
the Redeemer's purchase, and of the universality 
of the gospel offer, have been often looked upon 
as burdened, originate entirely in mistaken no- 
tions of the doctrine of federal representation, 
and are not at all connected with the true prin- 
ciple, either as generally adopted in the affairs of 
men, or as assumed and announced to us in the 
plan of redemption. 

It is no unusual circumstance in the history of 
intellectual strife to meet with instances of em- 
battled hosts who profess to differ toto coelo in 
almost every point, but the whole foundation of 
whose difference ma\ nevertheless be traced to a 
strange^ and indeed often ludicrous concurrence, 
in the adoption pf some one common but erronc- 
t)us first principle, which they severally connect 
with dissimilar and opposite assumptions; and 
thence proceed to construct their different sys- 
tems, as contrary to one another as could well be 
supposed. Thus i^ is well known that the Armi- 
nians and Antinomiaiis start owt from a commoii 



16fi 1 HE SOSY Ot^ CttRIsr.— RESt^LTb. t 

point in which they most cordially agree; but 
each so connects it with a different train of as- 
sumptions as to produce together two schemes 
profeissedlj^ Christian, which are as remarkable 
tor their mutual oppugnation, as for their indivi- 
dual contrariety to all that is holy and all that is 
precious in the gospel of God's son. The prin- 
ciple to which they both give assent, and whicli 
is undoubtedly false, is this: that it is not consis- 
tent with the righteousness of God to impose a 
law upon the creature, and consequently upon 
man in his present state, more holy or more ex- 
act than the moral powers and dispositions which 
he possesses enable him to fulfil. Hence the an- 
tinomian concludes that Christ has released us 
from all obligation to obc^y the moral law: for to 
that principle just specified as adopted by both 
parties, he joins this other, that man is a depraved 
being, and so cannot completely fulfil the moral 
law. Ergo, says he, that law^ cannot be bindings 
The Arnunian on the contrary adopts as his se* 
cond principle that the moral law is actually 
binding; and connecting this with the one as- 
sun ed on both sides, infers that man is not that 
G<:^rrupted creature which the Antinomian would 
have him be, but is able perfectly to keep the law 
of God. It will at once be perceived that in the 
assumption of their second principle, both arc 
undeniably correct, however opposed to each 
other, while they agree to err by mutually a- 
dopting a first and monstrously absurd maxim, . 
that the depravity attendant upon sm should of 
right relax the obli gations of the creature • 



THE BODY OF CHRtST.— RESULTS. 1^9 

Upon surveying the positions too generally as- 
sumed by the combatants on cither side of the 
great questions which we profess now to illus- 
trate, it is not possible to avoid the suspicion, not to 
say convivtioriy that the very same kind of game 
has been played here as in the case just specified* 
It appears to have been very commonly adopted as 
a plain case, that if indeed the plan of redemption 
is constructed on the federal scheme, properly so 
called, then all those who are to be saved were in- 
dividually (so to speak) specified in the covenant 
transaction, and known in law as of the Redeem* 
er's body, from the very first moment in which 
he undertook the responsibilities of their head* 
The reader will have to excuse us, if he per- 
ceives some obscurity in this statement, or in any 
thing of the same kind that may be met with 
hereafter. The scheme itself is obscure, palpa- 
bly obscure, and in attempting to reduce a state- 
ment of it to form, we cannot do more than its 
own warmest advocates have in every age 
effected. Such however is the common as- 
sumption; such both sides appear to think 
the only alternative, provided the principle 
of federal representation be at all adopt- 
ed. Hence, there immediately arises the strife 
of combatants. On the one part the ideas 
that the Redeemer should have represented 
ed through life, should have represented on the 
cross, should now represent in heaven, all the in- 
dividuals who have been or shall be saved, and 
ho other whatever; and that all these individualsi 
intheir individual capacity y should have been con- 



170 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULS. 

tinuedly, and from the first, recognized in law and 
in the provisions of the covenant, as included un- 
der the representation of Christ, and therefore as 
one with him; and no other individuals Avhatever 
represented, recognized, or in any way interest- 
ed: — All these ideas, 'vve say, are on the one part 
rejected, as destructive to the hopes of men, in- 
compatible with the universality of the gospel 
ofter, and in direct oppugnation to many plain 
and express declarations of the scriptures. And 
consequently the whole doctrine of federal repre- 
sentation is discarded in the gross; and is made 
to give place, either to the re-establishment of the 
law of works, or to a crude, undefinable, untan- 
gible sort of notion, that while the Redeemer did 
not in fact and formally represent any thing, or 
any body in particular: he nevertheless ga^^e be- 
ing to such an order, that any body or every body 
may or may not receive the benefit of his acts, 
according as they do m: do not put themselves 
under his protection, A scheme of this kind is 
susceptible of being moulded into almost innu- 
merable forms, and may be made to approximate 
very near the truth, or diverge immensely from 
it, just as the speculator may be more or less pos- 
sessed of, and governed by other principles really 
scriptural. But mould the idea as you will, it is 
not a natural, not a possible thing to adopt and' 
act upon a scheme which recognizes an head, but 
without a body; or, which really amounts to the 
same thing, an head specifically, exactly, min- 
utely defined, with a body incapable of any sort 
of specification, and the very existence of which 



li 



I ^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 171 

h far from being removed above the inconve- 
"nience of contingency. 

On the other hand, the scheme of federal rep. 
resentation, as ah-eady delineated, and as conce- 
ded on both sides to be the natural one, is adopt- 
ed by a far more sober and permanent order in 
the churches, notwithstanding all the difficulties 
under which it labours, and all the objections to 
which it not only i-e^wj, but actually w liable. 
Holding, as they do, that the individual names of 
all who shall be saved, and those only, were born 
upon the breast of our great high Priest; that in 
their individual names he acted and suffered; and 
that the covenant recognizes them, and the law 
recognizes them, in this, specific and individual 
way:— they do shudder at the least approach to 
any thing like a concession, that the plan of God 
in any sense admits the possibility of another's 
deliverance; and they do meet all the difficulties 
and all the objections that seem to lie against this 
scheme, in the best mannee th£y can. 

It may however be said without the smallest 
hesitation, that the last mentioiied view, never 
Y£.T WAS, AND NEVER WILL BE made appear 
consistent with itself, or with the word of God. 
The gospel of God's son never could be tendered 
with truth and innocency to any soul that shall fi- 
nally be lost, if that representation were consis- 
tent with the facts: the sin of unbelief, in its ge- 
nuine colours, never could be imputed to any 
ivho shall perish: the exploded doctrine of eter- 
lal justification would be proved neither fonciful 
lor false: and, above all, many of tho^epassa- 



172 THE BOt)Y OF CHRLST— RESULTS. 

ges in the word of God which Arminians have 
wielded with such triumph and effect, never can 
admit of a satisfactory interpretation, even though 
we should succeed in wresting them from their 
hands. 

But the fact is, that the prevailing idea relative 
to the application of the imputative principle is 
wrong — radically wrong. For it is not true, nei- 
ther can it be true, of any system whose develop- 
ment is progressive, that all vvho shall be parts 
of it are formally and in law recognized as parts, 
whether they exist or w^hether they do not. Nei- 
ther is it true that the contemplated results which 
are to arise out of such a constitution, or what in 
the present case amounts to the same thing, the 
Qonlemplated numbers to the reception of which 
it shall be limited, diminishes in the least the ca- 
pacity of the system to receive indefinitely above 
those limits, and that without any kind of vio- 
lence to the constitution under which they might 
be received. Finally, it is not necessary in or- 
der to the recognition of a body or association, 
as well defined and as clearly si^ecified as the head 
which represents it can in any given case be sup- 
posed to be, that all the parts or members which 
may eventually enter into the constitution of that 
body, should either exist in fact, or be known in 
law previously to the moment when they are made 
to assume their station in the body. — These po- 
sitions Vv'e v/ill endeavour to confirm and illus- 
trate with a direct reference to the great questions 
before us. 



THE BODY OF CHRiS'^'*-^^^^^'^'^^- 



, io 



1. We say then, in the first place, that it is an 
error to suppose that all who shall be at any time 
members or, parts of a federal system, the deve- 
lopment of which is progresssive, arc therefore 
recognized in the plan, or known in law as parts 
of that system from the commencement of its 
operations. Thus, in the case before us, it is not 
true that all the elect of God, or in other words 
all who shall be saved, were individually recogni- 
zed as members of Jesus Christ, and as included 
under his federal representation, at the time when 
his obedience was yielded, or his atonement made. 
Neither is it true of any unconverted man at any 
given moment, although he be of the election of 
grace, and shall therefore finally be saved, that he 
is known in law as occupying any standing but 
that which is common to *'the world that lieth in 
wickedness.^' In other other words, they who 
are in Christ, they who are called and justified 
and sanctified, these, and these only are recogni- 
zed as under the representation of the surety: 
and neither the uncreated nor the unconverted 
man are in any sense included under the same 
representation, whatever may be the purposes of 
God concerning them as respects the future. 

Let us first examine in a few instances how 
this principle applies in other associations or com- 
binations of men into a federal system. There 
are no doubt many at this moment on the plains 
of Europe who will one day become to all intents 
and purposes constituent portions of the Ameri- 
can people. At present however, they arc not 
so. They are subject to governments with which 

? 2 



174 THE BODY OF CimiST.— RESLi/i :^. 

we have little or iio connection; or perhaps as the 
subjects of a foreign power, they may be prepar- 
ing to level the instruments of death against the 
bosoms of our countrymen. Who pretends to 
sa}^ that their future destmation affects their pre- 
sent standing? Who doubts butJthat the man who 
is now an alien euiemy entitled to none of our 
precious privileges, may one day become a fel- 
lo A citizen with ourselves, and from the very mo- 
ment m which the relationship commei^es, have 
the colouring of his future life in a great mea- 
sure determined, not only by the future transac 
tions of a government by which he at present 
cannot be affected, but even by transactions that 
are long since past? The moment that gives birth 
to the relationship in question, shall not only in- 
terest him in all that will then be future^ but no 
less strongly connects him with all that may be 
past. This then is at the same time the moment 
in which such persons begin to be recognized in 
law, and in which the operations of all preceding 
acts begin to take place upon them. Upon this 
same principle undeniably proceed all those per- 
manent institutions among men under which the 
individuate may be fwcver dmnging, while the 
system itself changes not. 

Again, it is very certain tliat human nature 
was represented by our first fatlier in Eden, and 
that we fe^l to this day the consequences of his 
procedure as our federal head. But it is not true 
that all the individu^s who have successively 
sprung from him were individually and formally 
recogniz/ed itt law as included under the repre 



THE BODY OF CIiUIST.— RESULTS. IVr* 

sentation of their father. In order to nicike out 
such ail assumption it would be necessary to 
maintain that the world must have stood for pre- 
cisely so many aq-es, and have witnessed ihc 
birth of precisely so many human beings, let the 
event of his trial turn out what it might. Had 
Adam stood, faithfulness would have requu'ed the 
production of just so many men, and consequent- 
ly the continuance of the established order for 
just so many ages as the specification in the co- 
venant called for; otherwise the life that was pro^- . 
mised would not be imparted to all u ho would 
have had a right to the blessings thus secured. 
On the other hand, the ^vorld could nothaye stood 
a moment longer for the purposes, in-questioiij 
otherwise all its additional inhabitants must: have 
been totally destitute of a federal head, and so in 
no sense upon the same footing with their fathers. 
On the contrary, since Adam actually fell, had 
his representation been r^s specific as we now sup- 
pose, the world must have stood for the very 
saiue length of time, to afford means for the pro- 
duction of the very same individuals, that they 
might inherit the curse entailed upon them, aU 
though the considerations of Messiah's intcrven- 
tion had afforded no new reason for continuing 
its duration; and it.couljdnot consistently have been 
continued any longer, lest the production of ad- 
ditional human beings, not under the representa- 
tion of the fallen father, should have created the 
same embarrassmentb noticed in the former case. 
Upon the whole, the assumption binds us down 
to conclusions, mould it as you wilh which run di 



176 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

rectly counter to all our apprehensions of the 
sovereignty of God, and of the fitness of things. 
We conclude therefore, that as in the case of na- 
tions, so it is with the world of men at large; 
that which unites them to the system represented 
is the thing wh^ch effects their specification in the 
covenant. Until they exist they cannot be so 
specified, and until that order takes place which 
we call the bond of union to the first representa- 
tive of man, till that bond itself is^ the uniovi and 
consequently the representation, cannot be. It 
would surely be very absurd to talk of our per» 
sonal, individual representation by our father A- 
dam, at the moment when he fell; and yet to ad- 
mit (as is on all hands admitted) that natural genera- 
tion is the bond which unites us to him. Very 
strange indeed, if the union could exist some six 
thousand }'ears before the bond itself existed by 
which alone it is confessedly effected. The state- 
ment furnished upon this subject in a preceding 
number is undoubtedly the correct one. *'Adam 
was the representative of human nature^ and whe- 
ther that nature was to be developed in ten gen- 
erations or in ten thousand, was a matter of no 
consequence at all in the application of the prin- 
ciple. Upon no man could it have its influence 
of whom he was not the federal representative^ 
upon every man to whom he might afterwards 
stand in that relation its influence was to be di- 
rect. That is to say, human nature, as descend- 
ing from him by ordinary generation, was the 
object specified; and the application of the cove- 
nant terminates upon A, B and C, not in conse- 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 177 

quence of any individual specification in the 
compact, but because they are of that body vvhich 
the compact specified.'' 

Here then, we have a scheme not only consis- 
t^eut with itself, and perfectly flexible to that sove- 
reignt}^ of Jehovah, which prolongs or terminates 
his constitutions at will, but also one which is in 
every respect perfectly analagous to all other con- 
stitutions of the federal kind with which we have 
any thing to do. For the very same kind of rea- 
soning by w^hich w^e establish the principles and 
order of the compacts just reviewed, will be found 
to apply for the same reason and wdth the same 
force^ to that "better covenant established upon 
better promises." Our representation by the 
Lord Jesus Christ is the direct as well as neces- 
sary consequence of our union to him. We 
must therefore be^ before we can be recognized 
as of the body of Christ; and we must be of the 
body of Christ, before it can be said of us in any 
case, that he bore our sins in his own body on 
the tree. Our individual representation by Christ 
therefore commences with the fact of our union 
to Christ, and not, as is often assumed, with his 
assumption of the mediatorial character. 

We know that controversy has so sharj^ened 
the spirits of men, and taught many to attach 
such high importance to the view we are com- 
bating, that these positions will be regarded by 
not a few with a kind of horror as well as sur- 
prize. But let them not decide too hastily. So 
far are they from defending the only view upon 
this subject that- can make head against Armin 



178 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

ianism, that they have unwarily taken a position 
as unfavourable for that end, as could be wished 
by their warmest adversary; and if the sentiments 
which they deprecate be unscriptural and injurr- 
ous, let them know that their own upon this head 
are not a jot more scriptural, and vi^ry little less 
injurious. 

We say a^^ain, that no man can be under the 
representation of Christ till he be in actual exis- 
tence; hnd that even his existence, even his eter- 
nal election alters not his standing with respect 
to the covenant, or with respect to the law, so 
long as he continues an unregenerate man. The 
scripture also says the same thing. The Apos- 
tle Paul in the beginning of the seventh of Ro- 
mans, lays it down as an axion, and indeed one 
would think it a very plain one too, that no per- 
son can at the same moment be under two disr 
tinct and x)pposite federal heads; that is to say^ 
we cannot be at one and the same time under the 
representation of the first and second x\dam. If 
then WQ admit the doctrine of original sin, or in 
other words of our covenant relation to the first 
federal head, that very concession cuts of all pre- 
tence in favour of the very common notion of an 
individual and formal, and legal interest in Christ 
as our own representative throughout all time. 
On the other hand, if we adopt the notion of such 
a specification in the terms of the covenant, and 
in the eye of the law, we virtually deny that w^e 
^ ever did or could stand in a covenant relation to 
\ the first offender, and plump into the labyrinth of 
eternal justification. 



I 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 179 

The argument furnished us by the Apostle on 
this subject is so concise and lucid that it is worth 
while to transcribe it. ''Know ye not, brethren, 
(tor I speak to them that know the law) how that 
the law hath dominion o^'er a man as long as he 
liveth.^ For the woman which hath an husband 
is bound by the law to her husband so long as 
he liveth: but if the husband be dead, she is 
loosed from the law of her husband. So then, 
if while her husband liveth, she be married to a- 
nother man, she shall be called an adulteress: but 
if her husband be dead, she is free from that law: 
so that she is no adulteress, though she be marri- 
ed to another man. Wherefore, my brethren^ ye 
also are become dead to the law by the body 
OF Chkist, that ye should be married to ano- 
ther, even to him xvho is raised from the dead^ that 
we should bring forth fruit unto Go(/."^ The 
Apostle then not only assures us that a man can 
no more be at the same time under the first and 
second Adam, than a woman can be the lawful 
wife of two husbands at once; but he also states 
th^t it is by the fact and in the very act of our 
uniting to "the Bod} of Christ," that we become 
''dead unto the law." Our representation by the 
second Adam is the state which not only suc- 
ceeds but destroys our relation to the first; so that 
the moment of our becoming members of the 
body of Christ, is that which is the commence- 
ment of our personal interest in him. And if 
we may be allow^ed here to anticipate an idea 

''^Roni. vii, 1 — '-. 



180 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS, 

which will fall more properly under a different 
part of this discussion, we may safely say when 
thus countenanced by the Apostle, his own 
BODY is that xvhich the head — the Saviour repre- 
sents^ and it is '^by the body," i. e. by our be- 
coming a part of it, and so one with it, that we • 
fall under his representation, and can say there- 
fore with truth, and in conformity with that 
w^hich the law will then, hut not till then^ allow, 
*'he gave himself for me;" ''he bare my sins in his 
own body upon the tree." Previously to this, 
the Patriarchs and Prophets, the Apostles and the 
M irtyrs, all %vho ever have, or who ever yet shall 
"wash their garments and make them white in the 
blood of the lamb," are declared by this same 
Apostle to be ''children of wrath, even as oth- 
ers, '^'^ They are exactly in the same condition, 
of the very same denomination, unknown of A- 
brahcmi, unacknowledged by Israel, strangers 
from the ovenants of promise, and diftering in no 
one particular of their case from those who shall 
iinalh perish. The purpose of God to include 
them afterwards under the Saviour's representa- 
tion, does not enclose them now within the bow 
of the everlasting covenant; the gift of them by 
the father to the son, does not now bring them 
out from the comimon condition. They remain 
"even as others," in the eye of the law, and in 
point of fact, till the moment arrives when the 
spirit of the son unites them to himself; and when 
thus united to "the body," they fall under the 

*Ephes. ii. 3. 



THE BODY OF CHklST— RESULTS. 181 

i4e nomination and partake all the blessings inher- 
ited by it. 

The neglect to distinguish between the pur- 
pose of God to bring mtn under the covenant, 
and the actual operation of the covenant itself, is 
the thing which involves this matter in perplex- 
ity. And so long as we will not discriminate be- 
tween his purposes and his law, between the struc^ 
are of a system and its practical operations; so 
long, in one word, as we persist in confounding 
things totally distinct, and imagine to ourselves 
a structure without a likeness either in heaven or 
on earth, it will not be sirange if we should wan- 
der, 

<«In endless mazes lost." 



No. IX. 
RESULTS, 

If the reader is satisfied, by the assertion of 
our Apostle, that no being can be recognized as 
in any sense or to any extent under two federal 
heads, at one and the same time; if he thence 
gathers that elect men are not represented by 
Christ till they are actually in Christ; and if he is 
able to perceive that this statement is perfecdy 
analagous to the application of the principle of 
federal representation, in every other constitution 
known among men; he is now in need of little 
aid in order to adopt w ith full conviction the 



iS-2 THE BODY Ol CHRIST.— RESULTS, 

2c!. Position hazarded upon this subject, viz. 
that it is not true with respect to any fedenil sys- 
tem progressive in its development, that the mea- 
sure of results which it is intended to produce, is 
commensurate with all that it is capable of pro- 
ducing; or that the numbers to the reception of 
which it shall be actually limited, are to be re- 
garded as the utmost it is capable of receiving, i 
A nation is undoubtedly a federal association,*^ 
constructed, as we have seen, upon precisely the 
same general principle with ^*the body of Chriqt." 
But who ever yet imagined that the civil compact i 
ever did or ever could set bounds to the num- 
bers of the people, so that the operations of gov- 
ernment must Jiecessarily terminate upon a spe- 
cific number, neither more nor lessr Who ever 
supposed that when a nation increases to a two 
or three fold population, it is necessary that tlie 
sanction of her laws, the functions of her govern- 
ment, itnd every bond by ^hich the federal head 
is united to the body, must be proportionably 
augmented, proportionably distended, in order to 
cover this vast increase of members? Who ever 
reasoned thus with respect to the corporation of 
a city? Orwho does not know that the increase or 
the shifting of the body produces no manner of 
change in any of these respects, in any federal 
combination known^ among men? let the body 
be increasing or diminishing, it is still one, it is 
identically the same, and ^^ejorm of law recog- 
nizes no manner of difference, let the case in that 
respect be as it may. That which for the time 
being is^thie bod)^, or rather, that which is the 



I 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 183 

oody, is the subject operated upon; and the ad- 
dition of constituent atoms, not destroying the 
identity of the system, can create no kind of em- 
burrdssment — can give occasion to no kind of 
ftcvv demand upon the resources of the head. 

The whole difficulty upon this point, as appK- 
' ed to the question of the extent of Christ's satis- 
faction, is bottomed upon the presumption- that 
every particle m a federal body, and e\>ery ac-' 
u'cssion to that body, must be formall)^ and* 
specifically recognized in the terms of the- 
compact; so that really the plan of grace is made 
to proceed upon the system of item contra item;\ 
as it is displayed in the pages of a Ledger, rather 
that upon the plan of the federal compact, as re- 
cognized by men in all other matters, and as it- 
must be organized where it exists at all. It is thi< 
assumption that gives birth to all tnat liesitation 
about determining the point whether our blessed 
Lord must have sufFeredmore than he actuallvdid. 
if it had been his pleasure that more should have 
been s^ed. Doubtless, if there were that specifi- 
cation of all individuals, and of all their individ- 
ual sins — if there were item contra item, so mucli 
obedience for just so many men, and sa much suf- 
fering for just so many sins, there must have been 
accesions to the Saviour's merits, there must 
have been augmentations of theSaviour's anguish, 
in order to procure additional titles and to wash 
away additional guilt. But who ever thought of 
a similar arrangement in any other federal sys- 
tem! Who ever thought that the proclamations 
of our President, that the ordinances of our con 



184 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

gresS) that any act of any officer of our genersrf* 
government, must be just so much the stronger 
now than it was ten years ago, as will render it 
capable of binding two million people more! The 
notion is palpably absurd. It is an application of 
one class of rules And system of ideas, to an other 
order of things about which they can have noplace. 
But let us appl}'' the same wild notions to ano- 
ther federal scheme, confessedly divine. Adam 
was the representative of human nature. Will 
it be said that if he had stood, the merits of his 
obedience would have been partitioned out a- 
mong all whom he represented, so that each must 
have had their exclusive portion of the claim? 
Will it be said that if the world should have stood 
for one generation more than is contemplated in 
the plan of God, that g:encration must have been 
witnout any title to ihe inheritance he eariled? 
And as the matter stands, as Adam has actually 
fallen, will it be maintained that the guilt of his 
transgression is thus partitioned out? Or does 
any body imagine that if the world were to stand 
rfor a generation longer than is actually designed, 
Adam must have sinned a little more heinously 
than he actually did, in order to involve that gen- 
eration likewise in the common ruin; or that o- 
therwise they would escape the infection of their 
fellows? Every body w^ill see that all this is per- 
fectly absurd. Every bddy will admit that it is 
a matter of mere indifference to how many or how 
icw generations the duration of the world shall 
jc protracted. He was the representative of Jm- 
■imn nature^ descending from him by ordinary 



THE fiODT OF GttRlST.^RESULTS. 185 

P-eneraticn, and the individuals, wheresoever, and 
in whatever numbers found, are visited with the 
penaltjs because 0/ the system against t^hicn u 
v/as denounced. Had they nevcr exisUd, thc^ 
system would have been still CQmpletc, eveint^ 
a city or nation is complete in itself, whether with 
a smaller or larger population, and as not being' 
of the system, the law could not have recognized 
them, neither would it have missed them. The 
body — the w^hole body is tlie object upon which 
the law takes hold, and which the covenant for- 
mally recognizes, and that body would still ex- 
ist in perfection, whj^tever might be the case Vvith 
them. 

Further: the imputation of Adam's offence is 
not thus parcelled out among the individuals who 
fall under His representation. It has been stated 
and proved in another part of this essay, (page 
36y) that "^^n the first covenant, the guilt of A- 
dam's sin is not partitioned out among his des- 
cendants, but the whole of that guilt, and the 
v/ho!e burden of the curse entailed widi it, de- 
scends undivided to every soul of man." Foe 
the illustrations of this point ^he reader can, if he 
please, look back to the page referred to. 

Thus much then is certain, than in all federal 
bodies the idea of partitioning out either merits 
or demerits among the individuals composing the 
system, is impracticable and absurd.. The whole 
merit, the v*^hole demerit, descv nds upon the 
whole system as one^ and rests undivided upon 
every member, upon every constituent atom of 
that system, as fully and as really as if it alone 

^2 



186 THE BODY Or CHRIST.— RESUL'i S 

were the whole body. That which is imputed 
to any portion of the body, because of the body, 
by no iTieans weakens the imputation of the same 
to any and to every oiher portion. Were man- 
kind to be extended to a milHon generations they 
would make but the one system under the same 
one head, and the guilt of that head w^ould des- 
cend as fairlv and as fullv to them, and to every 
individual of them, as it has awfully descended 
to the reader or the writer of this little work. 

Why then foist in a notion so contrary to eve- 
ry thing admitted in other cases, when we set a- 
bout construing the coveiiant of God's peace? 
Why suppose that the most august and benefi- 
cial of all the federal systems which the universe 
has witnessed, must be more defective in its pro- 
visions and more imperfect in its structure than 
any other system with which we are acquainted.^ 
Why allov/ that even man, feeble and short sight- 
ed, can adopt, can act upon the principle accor- 
ding to its genuine nature, while in the hand of 
the author of all w isdom, and when employed as 
an engine for the most benificent of purpo^es^ it 
must unavoidably become 

"A mighty maze an<l that ^vithout a plan! '^ 

But we are under no necessity of closing this 
discussion by an appeal to the frail and fallible 
reason of humanity. We have yet a greater wit- 
ness. The Apostle Paul tells us repeatedly that 
the constitution of the body of Christ is not thus 
diverse from all other federal systems. He teach- 
es us again and again that it is precisely paral 



i 



TUL BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULi b. 16. 



|Iel with the former constitution, headed by the 
'first of men. AVe infer then, that if under the 
first covenant guilt descends undivided to ever} 
soul of man, even so under the second ccvenant, 
righteousness descends undivided too. We infer 
that if this guilt might descend to an indefinite 
number more than shall ever be born, even to a 
thousand or to ten thousand generations, even so 
righteousness might be extended indefinitely 
to those who never shall be born again, even to 
millions upon millions. We infer that as both 
systems are alike susceptible of hidefinite and of 
illimitable augmentation, so they arc both limited 
in fact only by the numbers that are actually with- 
in them; and that as it is the sovereignty of God, 
and not the terms of the covenant of works, that 
fixes the numbers that shall be born of i\dam; 
so likewise it is the same sovereignty, and not 
any restrictive clause, or limited provision in the 
covenant of grace, that restricts the numbers that 
shall be born to Christ. 

Indeed, if the discussions in the preceding 
number be admitted as sound, it must at once be 
perceived that in setting aside the idea of an in- 
dividi-al and specific representation^ such as is 
often contended for, every pretence in favour of 
this second wrong assumption is taken away: and 
that nothing more would have been needful in 
order to fix the true principle on the subject just 
discussed, than to remove the former false one 
upon which not only this, but all the other erro- 
neous positions on this subject are declaredly 



188 THE BODY OF CHRIST,— RESULTS. 

fouiidfd. Of these considerations we shall, at 
least, avail ourselves when managing the 

3d. Postion which has been laid down upon 
this subject: viz. that ''it is not necessan% in or- 
der to the recognition of a body or association, 
as well defnicd and as dlearh^ specified as the hertd 
^vhich represents it, that all the parts or mem- 
bers which may eventually enter into the consli- 
tution of that body, should either exist in fact, 
or be known in law. previously to the moment 
when they are m^de to assume their station iti 
the body." 

The soundness of this principle in its applica- 
tion toevcrv other federal svstem uith which wc 
are acquainted; will bet admitted without diificuK 
t}'; nay ;77tV^^ be admitted by every person who 
is disposed ehher to think or reason on the sub- 
ject. In arranging the concerns of nations or 
corporations, it is not possible and certartily i:;- 
not necessary to define upon whom^ or upon how 
vnimy of the yet unborn the passing transactions 
i^hall be found to terminate. The nation, the 
corporation, the body politic, of w^hat kind so- 
ever, is the thing known in law, is the thing ope- 
rated upon exactly as it is developed at the mo- 
ment; and he v^^ould be looked upon as a mad- 
man who should call in question the completeness 
and defmiteness of that body, merely because he 
could not define its future extension, or specify 
its future members. 

The only difference therefore, between the 
^^body of Christ" and other federal bodies, con- 
sists in the capacity of the head of this system t> 



ff 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 189 



:ontrol and define the body at his pleasure. 
He knows, because he determines the number, 
the name, the time, and every thing respecting 
the accession of individuals to the mass* Still, 
however, it is upon that mass that the law takes 
efilct; that mass is in every stage of its develop- 
ment as definite and as complete as is any other 
federal system in any stage of its existence; and 
the fact that it does not yet contain all the in- 
dividuals that it is designed to comprehend, no 
more militates against its dcfiniteness and com- 
pleteness, as one great body, than the fact that 
additional births shall take place in a nation the 
next year, destroys its pretensions to the attri- 
butes and honours of a perfect nation throughout 
the present yean 

It UTre easy to confirm and illustrate the posi- 
tion now before us, by an appeal to every federal 
system of progressive development; to every con- 
stitution, indeed, about which the perplexing 
question of identy can be agitated, from the ani- 
mal body, or plant, or mineral, constituted of per- 
petually varying, and generally increasing atoms, 
up to those vast and ever-abiding nations con- 
cerning which it has already been discovered 
that they never change. It would, however, be a 
needless waste of time and pages, again to run 
over those numerous illustrations which have been 
already substantially before the reader. It is 
sufficient for our present purpose to remark, that 
upon our admitting the Apostle's principle, that 
no man can be regarded as under t\\'0 distinct 
and opposite federal heads at the same time, wc 



190 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

are likewise constrained to admit the position nov* 
contended for. For if it be a fact that no- man 
can be regarded in law or in theory as included 
under the niediatoriul representation, while in an 
unregenerate state, tlien it would follow from the 
rejection of our position, that the Redeemer never 
did and never can represent a definite system — 
that he never was and never will be the head of his 
body, the church, until that day w^hen the last 
whom it is his purpose to include is gathercd im 
The erroneousness, absurdity, and danger of such 
a notion need not ije here displayed. 

We conclude then, that while the body of 
Christ is, like every other federal system, suscepti- 
ble in its own nature of constant and indefinite aug- 
meiitation, and is actually and even declaredly 
designed to be thus augmented to the end of tlic 
world, it is neverthless, like every similar con- 
stitution, ''one and indivisible,'' an entire and 
well defined system in every stage of its develop- - 
nient. 

In exact conformity with this view, stands all 
the imagery employed in scripture to illustrate 
this great system. The vine is regarded as com- 
plete in itself, the olive tree is a system perfectly 
defined^ independently of the branches at any 
time to be grafted on them. When the bran- 
ches are thus grafted, they do not add to the en- 
tireness of the system, though they add to its 
extent; they do not make a complete vine, or a 
complete olive tree of that which was only part o{ 
one before, but they add to its sum of beauty and 
of fniitfulness; and from the moment of their be^ 



^ 



TrtE BODY OF CHRIST— RV:<>ULTS. 19i 



ing eiignitted, they become a part of a system, 
which even Avith this addition is still nothing more 
than entire. 

Accordingly all the kngunf^e of scripture, as 
ell as its iaiager)% is predicated npon this idea. 
It is alight thing," says God, *Hhat thou should- 
St be my servant to raise up the tribes ol Jacob, 
Tend to restore the preserved of Israel; I '»vill also 
give thee for a light, to the Gentiles, that thou 
niayest be my salvation unto the ci.'ds of the 
:\rth:''* In this passage, and in multitudes of 
Imilar ones that might be i^dduced, it is easy to 
see that the whole turn of expression, depends 
for its beauty and correctness on urj assumj^tion 
A' the true idea of federal representation: i. e. 
;hat the system represented is in every stuge of 
it conipiete, and at the same time susceptible of 
till further auurmentiUion. Israel was at that 
time the whole church of God, the v/hole body 
of Christ, and for aught that could bt objected 
from the nature of the system, the process might 
have been ended without the introduction of any 
new parts. But the plan of God was not there- 
fore complete; the whole purposes of his mercy 
were not yet fulfilled, and cbuld not be until a 
multitude of branches from the wild olive tree 
were grai'ted on tliis fair and fruitful stock. He 
therefore calls it "a light thing," to terminate the 
operations of his system upon the house of Abra- 
ham to the exclusion of all others; it is more 
worthy of his vast and mighty plan, more wof- 



.-i;v 



}9ir 1 lib BODY or CHRIbr.— KESULib. 

ihy iiis mercy, more worthy of his son, that ht 
should be also given *'for a light to the Gentiles, 
and for salvation unto the ends of the earth." 
But had the common notion of the individuali- 
zing scheme been the one on which the plan of 
grace was predicated, had the body of Christ, 
when constituted solely of the sons of Jacob been 
deficient as a system till the Gentiles were receiv- 
ed, then there would, have been neither beauty 
nor propriety in the expression of the prophet. 
For instead of being merely ^'a light thing" to 
bestow upon our Lord no larger body, as the re- 
compense of his toil, it would have been an un- 
just thing; it would have been putting him off 
with a part of that which he represented and had 
purchased; and while it restricted, contrary to 
faithfulness, the operation of the plan, it would 
have secured to the Redeemer an iinperfeeHiead- 
ship over a mutilated system. — Such incongr.?w 
ous imagery, such unapt expression, is not to be 
imputed to the word of God. 

The language of our Lord too, in what may 
be called his mediatorial prayer, amply serves to 
confirm and illustrate oiir position. For whom 
does he pray, whm in a moment of peculiar 
in erest addressing his wishes to his God 
xind father? Had he, or had he not a de- 
finite object in his view, the interests of which 
were pressing upon his heart? And of what na- 
ture and extent was that object? Let a simple 
quotation satisfy these inquiries. — *^I have man- 
ifested thy name unto the men which thou ga- 
vest me out of the \\'orld: thine they were, and 






THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 19^ 

vhou gavest them mc; and they have kept thy 
[word. — I pray for them: I pray not for the 
^v/ORLD, but for them which thou hast given 
me/'^ Here is certainly someihing as definite 
as could be expected or desired. Not the ivorld^ 
considered as a system, but his own body con- 
sidered as a system, is the subject of his prayer. 
Not that body as afterwards to be developed to 
the extent of his plan, but as it existed at the 
moment of his supplication — they who had *'be. 
lieved" — they who had "kept his word." Af- 
terwards he extends the blessings of his in- 
tercession to that same body in all the future 
stages of its development ; and does it in a style 
which sufficiently intimates that in his view the 
completeness of the systi.m at any given time, 
-and the future augmentation of tliat same sys- 
tem are things perfectly distinguishable, and per- 
fectly consistent. "Neither pray I for these a- 
lone, but for them also which shall believe on 
me through their word; that they all may be 
one; as thou father art in me, and I in thee, that 
they also may be one in us.'^f No illustration 
of ours could make these expressions appear 
more determinate than they may at first sight ap- 
pear lo every dispassionate reader. The object 
. for which the Redeemer did pray is certainly well 
defined: — it was *'not the world; it was ''them 
which God had given him." And yet this ob- 
ject, so accurately defined, does not embrace all 
the individuals that shall in the end be compre- 

* John xvii: 5—9. fib. 30, 21, 



194 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULS. 

hended under it: for he again petitions, not *'for 
these alone, but ior them aiso which shall believe 
on me through their word:'' He prays for them 
not as now included uiider his representation, 
but as future members of the body which \\(z7iov) 
represents: He prays for them not under the 
idea of their being one with him, but that they J 
^'m ay" be so. Here then we have a bodv — f 
the very body too which v/e want, a^ clearly spe- 
cified and as well defined as the head by whom 
it is represented; and }et the future members of . 
that body are not spoken of either as existmg in 
fact, or as known in law to be part of the con. 
stitution. The prayer is, that the plan may take 
effect upon them when they shall exist in fact, 
and that when in fact united to him, they may 
be recognized in law. It vvould appear that it is 
somewhere in these depths that the advocates of 
what is called an indefinite atonemxCnt, and their 
opponents who adopt the individualizing scheme 
of representation, both founder. They seem to 
assume it in common as a principle that in order 
to the representation of a definite object, ali the 
members which are, or ever shall be combiried ^^ 
into that system, must likewise be specifically 
and formally recognized in their individual ca- 
pacity, in the terms of the compact itself. The •. 
01 «e party dreading, as they justly may, the .:d- 
itiissibn of such a principle into the plan of gr ce, 
tike refuge from its consequences in the m zes 
of nVetkpliysical subtility, and wildly talk of un 
atOii( ment'made for sin wnhout any lega* ^nd 
fcrmal aspect toward the parucuiar object upon 

4 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 195 

which it is designed to terminate. — If such a 
scheme is proposed in lieu of the principle of 
federal representation, as it is interwoven in the 
plans of Providence, and largely recognized in 
the affairs of men, it will be no bold assumption 
to decide at once that the view is inadmissible; 
for the plan of God's salvation is avowedly and 
incontestably ^f the federal kind. But if it be, 
on the other hand, adopted as a modification. of 
the general principle in question, then it may be 
said with as little hesitation that it is such a mod- 
ification as can exist no where, but in the brain 
of a speculatist. A federal head must have a 
federal body, a definite head, a body as well de- 
fined, and all transactions declaredly federal, a 
declared object upon which they are to terminate. 
It is neither less nor more than a metaphysical 
bull to talk of a federal head which represents no- 
thing definite, and of federal transactions which 
have respect to nothing specific. 

Tlie objeciions which may be laid in against the 
system of our friends who adopt the other side 
of this melancholy and disastrous alternative, will 
be noticed more properly in a succeeding paper. 
That both are >vrong in almost the ®nly assump- 
tion in which they are agreed, appears to be a 
matter of easy demonstration. And assuming 
the position already laid down as proved, viz. 
that neither the specification nor even the exis- 
tence, nor the recognition, in any shape, of all 
the mdividuals that may enter into a system, is 
necessary in order to identify and operate upon 
th:it system, and upon every individual of which 



196 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

it may be composed, we conclude, that *Hhx:^ 
body of Christ^' is as clearly defined as any fed- 
eral system in the nature of things can be. And 
also, that this body, as thus defined, and as it ex- 
ists at any given moment, is precisely and exclu- 
sively the object represented by our federal head. 
Aijd also, that the capacity of the system to re- 
ceive still greater accessions, or the intention of 
the head to procure it those accessions, neither 
obliterate the boundaries which the compact pre- 
scribes to it, nor aftect the specification of its 
pn sent limits. 

And in still more general terms we conclude 
from the whole of the preceding discussions, that 
as under the first covenant the body represented 
by the first man was always definite and always 
complete, though alwaj^s susceptible of still fur- 
ther and further development: as the transcXiions 
of Adam terminated and still terminate upon hu- 
man nature, descending from him by ordinary 
generation, whensoever and wheresover it ap- 
pears: and as the application of the covenant knows 
BO man in an individual capacity, but recognizes 
each and every man as constituting a part of that 
one system, upon which and every part of \vnich 
the guilt and curse came down undivided and 
unimpaired: — ^ven so it is in every respect with 
'Hhe body of Christ.'' ''As by the offence of 
one, judgment came upon all m.en'' (came upon 
the Vv hole system, and upon every individual be- 
longing to the system that is united to Adam by 
ordinary generation— as his offence came upon 
them one and all) *'to condemnation; even so, by 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 197 

the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon 
all men," (came upon the whole system and up- 
on every individual man belonging to the svs- 
tern that is united to Christ in regeneration — the 
free gijt came upon all these) "to justification of 
life."^ So that ''as in Adam all die'' (the whole 
system, distend and prolong it as you will,) '^even 
so in Clu'ist shall all be made alive; "f (the v;ho!e 
of his system, distend and prolong it as you will.) 
But it is not even sufficient for the Apostle's 
purpose to shew that the capacity of the new 
system for diffusing the blessing is as unshack- 
led, and its provisions as efficient, as was the ca- 
pacity of the former for dealing death around. 
For if the lavv^^can know no limits to the inflic- 
tion of the curse but those which the sovereignty 
of God prescribes to the production of its sub- 
jects, then ''much more'' says Paul, may we 
justly insist that ^'the grace of God and the gift 
by grace," is capable of the same unshackled and 
interminable application. The ill-boding res- 
trictions which the unphilosophical and unscrip- 
tural individualizing; scheme would impose upon 
the operations of this blissful plan, could leave no 
room for the "much moke" so fondly and fre- 
quently reiterated by the Apostle. 

* Rom. V. 18. 1 1 Cor. xv. 2^, 



W8 THE BODY OF GHRISr.--RESUI.TS. 

No. X. 
RESULTS. 






From the preceding discussions it would ap 
per that God's plan for saving sinners is predica- 
ted neither upon the undefinable, impalpable, in- 
conceivable scheme of indefinite atonement, nor 
yctupon the more generally received but equally 
untenable principle of individual specification in 
the federal compact; but is bottomed and built 
up upon the simple, common, and well defined 
principles of federal representation, as understood . 
and adopted in the affairs of common life, and 
as clearly proceeded upon in God's dispensations 
towards the nations of the earth. 

We are then in possession of a secret by which 
£urly to untie those Gordian knots about which 
hum^an ingenuity has so often perplexed itself in 
vain. The Lord Jesus Christ as the wearer of 
our nature is at the head of a system Avhich in no 
case can recognize, and in no degree can co- 
ver any thing that is not a constituent portion of 
itself; but which like all other systems constitu- 
ted upon the same principle, is capable of re- 
ceiving into its capacious body beings of the 
same order without number and without end. 
Those resources which are sufficient to meet the 
diemands of any one individual, arc on the same 
principle ccjual to tih;e demands of any er of all 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 19^ 

Other similar individuals similarly cir,:umstanced; 
for as the curse of the broken covenant c®mes 
down upon the mass, and every individual oi' 
which it is composed, undivided and unimpaired 
by the frequency of its previous application, even 
so, and **much more'* the blessings and the priv^ 
ileges of the covenant of peace. 

Answer then in the way which these discus- 
sions have suggested the often reiterated inqui- 
ries, for whom did Christ obey? for whom did 
he suffer.^ whom does he represent.^ and you have 
at once the solution of the appalling difficuhy re- 
lative tq^the extent of his purchase. — He obeyed 
for his body, for it he suffered, and it he represents. 
That body, like everj^ other federal system is ca- 
pable of embracing individuals without number; 
and it is merely at the option of the regulator of 
the system, it is at the option of Christ our Lord, 
whom, how mant/j and when he will receive. 
The benefits of the constitution terminate at all 
times upon those, and those only, who are actu- 
ally under it, and the sum of those who shall be 
so found in the day of last accounts will be that 
for which he intentionally as well as actually suf- 
fered. The everlasting love of God, therefore, to 
the individuals who do at this time, ot who finally 
shall compose tWs mighty system, is evinced in 
the fact of their comprehension under it; the e- 
lection of his grace decides the happy allotment 
to **this man, va^ that man;** but it is their actual 
union with the body of Christ, which both in law 
and in fact brings down on them the blessings 
frocyred only for the body; it is the fact of their 



200 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

being brought under the * operation of the plan, 
and neither the facilities of the plan to oi>erate 
upon them, nor yet God's purpose thai it shall 
do so, that distinguishes their condition, their 
denomination, and their allotment from those of 
"the world that lieth in wickedness.'' 

But further: take up the subject in this point 
of view, and no difficulty remains relative to the 
sincerity, or the ti'uth of those tenders of the gos- 
pel, which appear at first sight so inconsistent 
with the fact that the Saviour actually died, no 
more than he prayed "for the world'' at large, . 
but only "for them that were given him out of 
the world." As the wearer of our nature, we 
again repeat it, he heads a system which cannot 
possibly have any bounds prescribed to its ope- 
rations, but such as the controler of the system 
chooses to prescribe in the fact of his bringing 
or not bringing men under its saving operation. 
The capabilities of the system know no limits. 
Heading such a system then, where is the great 
difficulty of his inviting human beings mto it 
w^ithout number and without exception! Full 
well we know, indeed, that the mere invitation 
M'illnot bring tliem there; but that argues nothing 
against the propriety of inviting them, when there 
actually is no impediment in the way of their be- 
ing made partakers of the blessing, except that 
which arises entirely from themselves, from their 
blindness, their enmity, their unbelief. "Com- 
pel them to come in:'' **yet there is room," may- 
very consistently be the commandment of the 
Saviour to his messengers, and his assurance to 



[1 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULl^. -^^ ^ 

ihc wcrld at large, to the very end of time. For 
the consummation of his plan in embracing the 
kist person whom it is his intention to receivej 
will be so far from diminishing the capacities of 
his system to receive more, or the resources of 
his merits to cover more, that the command miglit 
even then be fresh and green as ever, * ^compel 
them to come in:" faithfulness might still declare 
it as faithfully as ever, '*yct there is room:" — 
**Much more," ''much more," ''much more ihe 
grace of God and the gift by grace" is yet ca- 
pi.ble of abounding unto many. 

Clearly then there is an abundant foundation 
laid for those august titles bestowed upon the 
Saviour, such as "Saviour of the world," "a light 
that lighteneth every man that cometh into the 
world," "the Saviour of all men, especially of 
them that believe." He heads a system which 
is iiterallv and absolutely capable of embracing 
the whole mass, and every individual in the nK.s.-. 
Thus furnished, he takes upon himself exclu- 
sively the wondrous office of saving sinful iii.n* 
They are not to be sure regarded as in the svs- 
tern; for were that the case, they would be alrea- 
dy saved. But the system is adapted to receive 
them; it is designed and fitted up exclusively for 
the purpose of saving such as they are. And 
thus, not taking upon him "the nature of angels, 
but the seed of Abraham," he stands professedly, 
stands officially the deliverc of guilty men. Hv is 
therefore by office the Saviour of our race; he is a- 
ble to extend deliverance to the whole of it; he for- 
mally and unequivocally proffers such deliveranc*^ 



I 



202 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 



wherever his gospel comes; every man who reads 
or hears the message has a right to apply to him 
forthwith for the execution of his trust in his in* 
dividual behali: to none who do apply can the 
Saviour refuse redemption, consisteiidv v.ith fi- 
dehly to the office he has accepted; and whether 
men do or do not apply to him is a matter of 
perxct indifference, in so far as respects his claim 
to the title "Saviour of the world " 

Thns then he is by office^ acGGrdir»g to the 
Apostle^s expression, 'Hhe Saviour of all men," 
though he Vv^ill be found lo be in fact and in pur- 
suance of the actual duties of his office; onlt/aud 
^'especially the Suviour of them that believe." 
So too he is by office, so in the capacities of the- 
sv stem which he heads, so also he is by unequiv- 
ocal proffirs of his aid, the teacher of the igno- 
rant, the leader of the blind, ^^the true light which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the world,"*^ 
though multitudes may abide in the valley of the 
shadow of death, and multitudes of others choose 
the darkness rather than the light. Hence too, 
considering his official standing as bottomed up- ■ 
on the boundlesness of his ability to save, we may 
solve the enigma how it can take place that men 
may ''deny he Lord that bought them," and = 
hub '*bring upon themselves snift destruction."!' | 

The whole of these expressions, and multi- 
tudes of others which Armiiiianism has tortured 
v/ith so much insrenuitv and wielded with so much 
4 ffect, are abundantly capable of a clear, consis- 

^ Jehn 1. T ^ Peter ii. \, 



! 



THft BODY or CHRIST.— KESL^LTS. 205 



tent and iumiiioiis exposition when unckrs'ood 
i as predicattd upon the actual constitution of the 

* plan of grace; but never yet were, and wc will 
venture to say, never will be explained, justly 
and fairly, upon any other principle. 

It is not unknown that the above mentioned 
passages may be explained upon a principle even 
broader than that which has been suggested in 
the i receding p^tges. But tne adoption of that 

• view of the subject will be lound, so far from 
militating jgainst the smallest portion of the dis- 
play here submitted, to be in fact that very same 
display in its most expansive shape. We allude 
to the principle often and by no means obscurely 
hinted by the Apostles, that the Redeemer occu- 
pies the station of a second head to this whole 
system, in the room of our first father, who was 
not merely the federal representative of the whole 
human race, but the federal head of this whole 
system of things. The Apostle Paul is pretty 
explicit in his suggestion that it was by Adam's 
sin that *'the creature also (the creation, it should 
be, i. e. this whole system) ''was made subject 
to vanity." And he is express that through the 
operalion of the seeond covenant as Jieaded by 
the second Adam, *'ihe creature (the creatiop.) it- 
s' li ilso shall be delivered from the bondage of 
corr.iption into the glorious liberty of the sons 
of God."* And Ik^ yet more explicitly declares 
tl: i *'in the dispensation of 'i « fulness of time 
God will gather together" (re head is the Apos- 

* Rom. viii. 20, 2[, 



^4 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

tie's phrase, God will re head) *'all things in 
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are 
on earth. "^ So that in this perfect restoration 
of order and innocence, to this whole system row 
debased and deranged by sin, we shall have the 
accomplishment of that exilerating promise of "a 
new heaven and a new e^irth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness.'' But though it will be identi- 
cally the same system restored in Christ th it lias 
suffered under Adam, we have no reason to ex- 
pect that every thing which has at any time srone 
to constitute a portion of the system while defiled, 
will belong to it when pure. We have seen that 
though a nation sufft rs perpetual changes in the 
numbers and persons of its inhabitants, though 
thousands are born and thousands are dying eve- 
ry hour, the nation never changes; men regard it 
and God regards it, and both God and man deal 
w4th it as identically the same. Such too is our 
estimate of the human bod}-; the particles that 
go to constitute it are never for an hour precisely J 
the same, and w^e know not whether one remains 
at present that belonged to it two years ago. But 
yet the reader and the writer arc respectively the 
same persons now that they were ten or twenty 
years ago. So too in the management and pur- 
gation of this system, many of its constituent 
portions will fly off and perish, 'Hhe wicked shall 
be tumed ino Hell, and all the nations that for- 
get God," but the identity of the system will 
not be impaired; every thing is retained which 

♦ Ephes. i, 10 



THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 205 

is necessary to secure that; and this system, thus 
'^re-headed," and purified, and saved by Jesus 
Christ, shall abide and flourish forever. Mean- 
while the particles or portions which fly oflf and 
perish, do so because they are not under this se- 
:ond head, and so in no wise connected with the 
system as built up anew. 

In this view then, it is true in its utmost lati- 
tude thatChrist our Lord is ^'Saviourof the world.'' 
Arid the most general expressions that can be 
found in scripture, expressions upon which Ar- 
minianism has triumphed above measure, will be 
found susceptible of an interpretation the most lo- 
gical, philosophical and scriptural^ and one which 
at the same time deals double destruction to their 
green devices. 

It is needless however, to take this expansive 
range in order to eflfect the object we have in 
view. The principle before delineated so very 
much at large, is precisely the same one present- 
ed under a more limited and more manageable 
form. And this principle, so perfectly distinct 
from the **indefinite'' scheme of many modem 
theologians, and from the individualizing plan, 
esteemed so sacredly orthodox by others, — this 
plain and simple principle is in reality the one 
upon which the plan of God'S s^alvation is con* 
structed; and upon which alone, therefore, the 
scriptures can be fairly interpreted, and their de- 
cisions consistently pursued. 

Let this remark be verified in a vcrj' short anj 
obvious contrast between the respective bearings 
of the two last mentioned systems, upon several 

75 



^06 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

of the acknowledged doctrines and duties eveiy 
where inculcated in the word of God. We say 
between the two last mentioned systems ; for the 
notions of a general, and of an indefinite atone- 
ment, pr(:q)erlj' so called, are equally subversive 
df all the known principles of federal representa- 
tion, and equally repugnant to every dictate of 
the word of God. As such, therefore, they can 
have no claim to occupy a place in this compa- 
fison. 

The offer of the gospel is to be made '*^to every 
creature,'' without restriction and without ex- 
-ception, wherever there are men found on this 
8ide the place of punishment. This position we 
flo not attempt to prove : we assume it as the 
common faith of all the evangelical churches.~ 
For though there are some, even within the know- 
ledge oi the wTiter, who do deny tliis point, yet 
Jhey cannot other\vise be regarded than as ignor- 
, ant of the very nature of that gospel which they 
profess to preach, and of being as lamentably de- 
lective in their views of almost all truth, as of the 
all-important one in question. It Vv^ould be need- 
less to sacrifice time, and torture the reader or 
^he writer's patience in combating such notions. 
They interfere not with our subject. It is the 
faith of the churches, a scriptural and common 
faith that the message of Messiah's peace is to be 
breathed into every ear; that the proffers of his 
pardon are to be made to every soul. — Let the 
Veader mark it I Expositions of christian doctrine 
in a didactic style, luminous exhibitions of the 
scriptural principles upon which God is just and 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 207 

the justifier of him that believeth iu Jesus, how- 
ever useful and however indispensable, do not 
amount to proclamations of the gospel. All 
these might be done in the most masterly man- 
ner and with prodi^^ious effect, and yet the gos- 
pel never be preached at all, yet the herald never 
execute his most prominent and iniportant duty. 
Angels may thus learn, angels may be delighted 
with the wisdom and goodnes that this kind of 
exercise may be instrumental in displaying; 
angles themselves may be benefited by it. Devils 
too may hear, devils too may learn, devils may 
also wonder, but to angel or to fiend the gospd 
is not preached. 

The '* good tidings of great joy, \yhich shall 
he to all people,"' specifically consists in the ten- 
der of these blessings to the party addressed, in 
his own proper person, as definitely as if he were 
the only sinner in the vrorld, and as assuredly as 
if Christ had formally laiddownhis life for him and 
him alone. This is what the Apostle styles his own 
ambassadorship*: It is not simply opening up 
tlie way in which men mai/ be reconciled to 
God : it is the authoritative proffer of reconciliatioa 
in that way : it is as Christ's ambassadors, in his 
name, and *' in his stead,'' as though God the 
Saviour did himself beseech the individual— it is 
thus formally, pointedly, individually, and with- 
out exception, to make tender of the bkssing of 
reconciUation with God. 

*2Cor. Y. 19, 20, 2!. '^ 



-€8 THE BODY OF CHRlST.— RESULTS. t; 

Clearly then if the commission embraces *^ every 
creature,'^ and is to be executed in tlws way, the 
proffer of the gospel must include all the virtues 
of the atonement, intercession and every other offi- 
cial act of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ent^r intf> r 
the ground work of salvation. Now let it be 
inquired how such a proclamation of the gospel 
of peace can possibly comport with the assump- 
tions laid down in the individualizing scheme, — ; 
Did our Lord Jesus Christ formally and from the • 
first, include under his representation all those i 
whom it is his pleasure sliall be saved? Did he 
do it in such a way that the virtues of his office, 
while they must of necesssity extend to them 
formally and legally speaking, cannot by possibi- 
lity be extended to others, but upon the suppo- 
sition that as they v/ere not represented they must 
be pardoned without satisfaction, justified wiiiti- 
oiit righteousness, and saved without interces- 
sion? — Then, we say, that the proclamation of 
the gospel to characters of this description would 
not merely amount to a piece of solemn mockery ; 
it would be directly and unequivocally the pro* 
ciamation of a lie ; and the doctrine which au- 
thorizes it is nothing less than blasphemy against 
Almighty God. What ! men officially appoint- 
ed to offer pardon and righteousness, and eternal 
life, in God's name, ''in Christ's stead,'^ when 
no pardon has been produced that the law 
will permit to be applied to them ! when no 
righteousness has been prepared that by possi- 
bility of application might succeed to cover them ! 
when no intercessor could, consistentlv with hi; 



THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 20& ^ 

official engagement, undertake for them! and 
when they are left, to all intents and purposes, in 
the same relations and in the same condition in 
law and in fact, as if no such thing as a saviour 
hadjbeen appointed for the world! Who dare 
ascril)e to God tliis worse than Punic faith.-' 
Who that does ascribe it, dare presume to say- 
that " faithfuhiess shall be the girdle of his 
reins ?^' 

We are aware that it has often been said, and 
may be again said with some little plausibility^ 
that this ojTiissioa to include men within the co- 
venant of peace docs not at ail affect their duty to 
believe, and that as they neither will nor can be* 
lieve, but by the saving operations of the Holy 
Ghost, this tender of the gospel may serve as an 
admirable mean to manifest the height of their eq- 
mity and the justice of their punishment. God 
indeedkjiows that they will not believe, v/ill not 
embrace ^his offers ; but that prevents not him 
from making such a tender as will make mani- 
fest before all the principles which actuate theni, 
and will therefore abundandy vindicate, while it 
must assuredly heighten, their final condemna- 
tion. 

All this is very distinctly understood ; nay 
more, it is heartily subscribed to. It is mdeed 
very good reason why the gospel very consistr 
ently may be, and even should be offered to the 
millions who, it is not expected nor intended, 
sliall embrace it. But does it do away any por- 
tion of the difficulty before us? Is itnot a com- 
plete and shameless sophism when urged as an 



210 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

Answer to the objection of falsehood, in a iini- 
versal tender upon an individual scheme ? Tfiat 
is the point upon which our contrast hinges. — ^ 
The gospel says, and its authorized ministers are 
commissioned to declare, '^ to every creature,^* 
that there h a way of hfe ; tl^at it is opened for 
themselves; that Christ bears a commission wliich 
will enable him to save, and tliat he therefore 
stands ready and willing to save, without ex- 
ception and without restriction, all them that 
come unto God by him. This salvation is offi- 
cially and formally tendered to every creature, 
then, whether they shall be finally saved or lost; 
and whether saved or lost, theyliave identically 
the same assurance given them in the offer that 
every thing transacted by our Lord Jesus Christ 
in the character of Saviour, may be lawfully and 
unhesitatingly appropriated by themselves.- — 
Though then men's inability and indisposition to 
apply to the Redeemer nught be supposed to 
prevail to the concealment of the fallacy, not to 
say tlie falsehood, of such offers, on the indivi- 
dualizing scheme ; w^ould it alter the nature of 
the things jhemselves ? Would it not still be 
fact, that Christ in no sense bore the commission 
oi their Saviovjr, that pardon could not possibly 
be extended to them^ that no righteousness had 
been wrought out which could cover fA^zr de- 
formities? And would not every one of these 
facts be directly in the teeth of the gospel pro- 
mulgation, when fully u^der stood and rightly 
Gxecuted ? Is not the offering pardon where none 
has been procured, the offering rightedtisnc^t 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 211 

where none has been provided, the offering eter- 
nal life where none can be communicated, any 
more than if no plan of salvation had been insti- 
tuted, — are not all these things, upon the suppo- 
sition we are combating, as contrary to fact as 
any statement or proffer can be ? And will the 
mere assumption that because none uncompre- 
hended in the covenant can comply with the terms, 
the truth of the declarations never can be tested, 
or rather its falsity never can be exposed^ — wiit 
this mean and meagre and miserable assumptioh.. 
convert into truih declarations which are not true, 
or shield the pure and splendid throne of God: 
from the imputation of a subterfuge so shallow 
that imbecility itself might blush to fcither it? O. 

shame! O shame! — ''Let God be triie^ 

and every man a liar." Let this contradiction, let 
the imputation of this foliy, rest upon the head of: 
the weak and fond systematizer who, rather than 
let fall some darling hard- wrought scheme, will- 
make the Living and the Holy God staixl sponsor 
for the follies of his lackbraincd labours, and si-. 
leneeby the thunders of sovereignty and omnipo-., 
tence all familiar exposition of the defects it may 
present. Gentle reader, this quarrel is not God^s. 
** He is the rock, his work is p^fect^ all his ways 
are judgment." And believing, as you do, the 
declaration of the: scripture, that to every crea- 
ture without exception and without limitation,, all^ 
the blessings of this salvation are to be proffered, 
you are not also bound to embrace that indivi- 
dualizing scheme which stamps with every mark 
of the most unqualified fdsehood (h^ blissful de- 



212 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

ClaratiCMi, and immolates upon the altars of hii. 
man infallibility, the truth and honour of Al- 
mighty God. The Saviour himself has giv^n 
the commandment that the gospel of his grace 
should be thus inimitably proclaimed : he has 
stamped the commission of his messengers with 
the seal, of faithfuhiess : and every scheme which 
would set limits to tl^ efficacy of his official 
deeds, short of those limits which his gospe4^ 
has marked out, every sclieme which would cir- 
cumscribe a power which he proffers to exert 
on every individual to the earth's utmost end, 
must be branded as an arrogant and blasphem- 
ous imputation^ not less inimical to the dearest 
hopes of men than dishonourable to the integrity 
of the God of truth. 

In fact, even upon the most limited scale ima- 
ginable^. even upon that scheme lor which indi- 
\iduali2ers themselves contend, the gospel of 
Jesus Christ never could be preached, if their 
views are to be admitted as correct. Ltt it be 
repeated, that to preach the gospel is not merely 
to give a sound exposition of christian truth ; it 
is as Ghrist^s ambassadors to tender to them who 
>are the objects of the proffer, the redemption he 
brings near. Now, evidently, in order to do this 
with perfect truth, upon the scheme which we 
are combating, the subjects comprehended ivith- 
in the Saviour^s commission must be distinctly 
and individually known. To them you may, 
iKiy if you really preach the gospel, to them you 
must proffer it, because for them it is prepared. 
But yet not to aU that aie included in the coYSf- 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 213 

nant, but to the unregenerate alone. Because 
properly speaking it is to sinners, not to siiints, 
that the message of the Saviour, rigidly denomi- 
nated, is brought nigh. Pardon to them who 
need it, not to them who h^ive it: life to them 
who are dead, not to them who are already made 
alive : Peace to then, who are at enmity with 
God ; citizenship to such as are in an alien state ; 
but none of these things, formally and properly, 
to such as already have them. They may be 
nurtured, they may be protected, they may be 
increased, their salvation may be perfected ; but 
they cannot properly be the object of a message 
framed for sinners considered merely as sucli, 
for they already have much of that which it is 

profered to bestow. But how is your un- 

com^rted elect man, to be distinguished by your 
preacher from any other man f Th:: t is, hov/, upon 
the supposiiion we are endeavouring to beat down^ 
is the messeiisrer to execute the commission en> 
trusted-with him ? I'he alternative must be this : 
a gospel which can be specifically and tintring- 
ly applied, or no gospel at all : a preacher who is 
infallible, a preacher v»ho is omniscient, or no 
preacher at all. A most miserable alternative tor 
short sighted humanity ! 

Take now tlic other supposition Suppose 
that ihe federal system, headed by the Redee.r.cr,- 
is constituted like every other one beariDp the 
same name. When we see that it recognizes 
nothing save that vvhich is alread\ within its li- 
mits, but at the same time can admit ilhniti^bly 
and mterminably into its capacious besom ; w"^ 



214 THE BOI>Y OF CHRIST—RESULTS/ 

feel that we survey a structure to whose opera- 
tions sovereignty may prescribe whatever limits 
it sees lit, while with perfect consistency and un- 
dissembled truth it tenders the blessing without 
any kind of limits to all who wear the nature to 
which the plan refers. Such however is the en- 
mity, such is the blindness of the carnal mind, 
that none to whom it is tendered, following the 
bent of their corrupt nature, ever would embrace 
it. But with respect to the election of grace, the 
Spirit of the Son comes in aid of the general offer ; 
and while that oifer authorizes, the gracious in- 
fluence of God's gracious Spirit '^ persuades and 
enables^ the subject of nicrcy to lay hold uiX)n 
the hope set before him. Thus does it happen 
according to that which is written in the scrip- 
tures, " the election hath obtained it, and the rest 
are blinded :'' meanwhile no imputation lies 
against the truth or sincerity of him who offers ; 
and no palliation can be plead by those who des- 
pise the overture of mercy. He who believes, 
embraces the sinner's hope upon that " general 
warrantry of heaven,^' which would equally au- 
thorize every other human being, and without 
which no human being whatever would have 
any foundation to ''belie^^a unto righteousness.^' 

Which of these views are the most consistent 
with the uniform tenor ctf the gospel message, 
"^vith the n iture ^nd foundation of that faith by 
which we stand, and vvitli the majesty, wisdom 
and faithfulness of God, let the reader judge. 

But again : It is very certain that such as do 
not believe the gospel, and that upon the groun^l 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 215 

of the general proffer, will be held guilty of the 
sin of unbelief; and that this will be the great 
aggravation of their sin, and the specific ground 
of condemnation, that in refusing to believe in the 
saviour of the world, they have been making God 
a liar.^ Unbelief, in other words, the scriptures 
uniformly and strongly assert, shall be the damn- 
ing sin of all who hear but receive not the gos- 
pel. This is an axiom of which all who know 
the scriptures are abundantly possessed ; and it 
neither rcquiies nor shall have a laboured confir- 
mation in this place. Suffice it to say that it is, 
upon broad and scriptural ground:: a common ar- 
ticle in the faith of all evangelical and of many 
other churches. But what is it to believe, and 
what is it not to believe in Christ the saviour of 
the world ? To believe in Christ is not simply to 
believe that the scriptures are the word of the 
Living God. This wicked men often do ; and 
not so much as ore accurst spirit, whether hu- 
man or angelic, doubts the truth of the proposi- 
tion. Neither is it to embrace or to defend a 
scheme of doctrine, however luminous or how- 
ever sound. Intellectual light does not necessa- 
rily sanctify the heart. Hypocrites, and devils, 
and even persecutors themselves, have often been 
convinced of the truth in this sense ; the former 
are abundant in ever}' church through every age,^ 
yet surely not believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Consequently as unbelief, in its scriptural and 
appropriate sente, is exactly the opposite of s^ 

* 1 John V. 10, John's Gospel iii. 18, 19. 



216 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

ving faith, that damning sin cannot properly h^ 
construed into either the simple rejection of the 
scriptures, or a fatal mistake with respect to their 
essential doctrines. Either of these will, to be 
sure, involve the crime we are in quest of, to- 
gcrihcT with more or less of its attrocity ; but 
neither faith nor unbelief are exclusively limited 
to mere intellectual process, nor does their es- 
sence so much consist in the credit or discredit 
attached to the channel by which the proposition 
is conveyed, as to the naked proposition itself in 
which is involved the issues of eternity. True, 
they who do not believe that the scriptures are 
indeed the word of God, will likew'ise disbelieve 
''• the record which God hath given of his son :'' 
They who adopt a scheme ot docrrine utterly 
subversive of the necessity or possibility of vi- 
carious sacrifice, will in hke manner, by a simi- 
lar necessity, be comptlcd to reject the record. 
But this rejection, this unbelief, this condemning 
sin of which wc speak, is quite a different thing 
from either of them, however true it may be 
that both of them involve it. These are respec- 
tively the opposites of mere general assent to the 
truth of scripture, and of general subscription to 
articles of soundness. But neither unbelief itself, 
nor its opposite, that isjaith, in the strict, theo- 
logical, and scriptural ser.seof the word, fall pro- 
pcrly under any of the preceding denominations. 
We repeat then the questions, what is faith ? 
what is unbelief? No man, it is conceded, canii 
have faith in Jtsus Christ who cloes not believe ]} 
the scriptures to be the word of God, and who] 



THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULT.- 

^ ^ncs not at the same ti^nv .i ^ilvc those doctrines 
the scriptures wlilch v.r^ fundamental princi- 
I ipturc scheme. But if^ as we have 
!), the belief of these' tlimgs^ however indis 
.sable to faith, is so far from being faith itself. 
a many false professors upon eardi and all the in- 
'oitants of Tophet are in possession of the sound- 
' views, — if, in one \vov<\, sound views neither 
xssarily save nor sanetify, it is plain that the 
faitli whieli rfb^^save, and which is inva:riably and 
: ccssarily joined with sanctifying infiuence, must 
j/et a very different thing. Reader, v/e hope 
11 have not yet to learn that it is a different, and 
.nuch more simple thing. It is neither more 
i.or less than accrediting the sincerity, the graci- 
oiisness, the faithfulness of the Saviour's pro- 
mises, made over to yourself in the broad char- 
ter of his universal offer : it is laying; hold '' with 
the heart," upon this hope ; and crying and trust* 
ing to the Almighty Saviour to have mercy .upon 
you according to his word. This is feith. This that 
glorious and happy principle which resting not 
in the speculations of the head, nor dealing ar- 
row^s and death in confficts about doctrine, lays 
hold of die glorious gospel for one's self; pleads 
before the Saviour the universal charter; che- 
rishes the promise as a ground of action, not a 
butt for controversy ; and taking tht direction to 
which the promise points, leaves it to the Savi- 
our — puts it upon the Saviour to perform his 
word: — does more therefore than quench the 
violence of fire and stop the mouths of U >ris ; 
nuenches the lightnings and chains up the tbun- 

T 



T 



il8 THE BODY OF J^HRIST.— RESULTS. 

derbolts of Sinai herself, t\nd piles brazen moun-. 
tains on the mouth of Hei.- V u cannot be 
L^mitten5 ^^^ vo^ cannot; you cannot become a 
denizen of misery's vaii; for you have believed 
the Saviour, you have taken him at his uoru ; 
he must be faithful, and your iciui has.sa^■cc' 
you. 

You believe, my fellow sinner, that this h 
genuine faith: That this alone i^ the i. i i. ii 
God's elect. Then you roust believe that tiie 
reverse of this, that an indisposition to accredit 
die Saviour's profiers to ourselves, a coiiscquent 
refusal to act upon those piofFei:3, and so a ne- 
glect to lay hold upon the hope of eternal hfe, i^' 
specifically and formaUjthat mibelief which shall 
be at last the condemnation of the world; as^ 
really aud fully the condemnation of ihem who 
believe the scriptures, who embrace sound doc- 
ttrri- , but who never have embraced the proffer 
of the Saviour directed to themselves, as it can be 
tlie condemnuiion of the most licencious sceptic 
or abandoned heretic. Yes, that profier cf salva- 
tion to " whosoever heareth, whiOsoever will,'* 
that assurance of the Saviour that " whosoevej 
conieth shall in no wise be cast out," and " who- 
soever belie veth shall not be ashamed," consti* 
tuie the broad, and, together with other scrip-! 
iurt5 of simi^iir import, the alone foundation of 
a sinner's faith. Tiiey are the common founda- 
tion oi our common hope, and all the light of 
heaven upon the general scheme how God, ma)| 
be just and the jusnfier of sinners, all the cold-j 
blooded zeal of harpy handed orthodoxy, in dis- 



THE BODY IRIST.— RESULTS. 219 

piitlng and in fiahtuu?; for these precious truths, 
is not n^orth a rush, will in fact be the savour of 
d^ those who do not recognize the simple 

pr^: icipij of cipplying to the saviour in the faith of 
these his promises, and believe upon this bn ad 
sealed tvarrantry of heaven that the prdffer is to 
us : — that uiUo us even w?, and to our children 
is iiiC vvonil of this salvation sent. He who does 
noi believe it u of course a doubtcT of the living 
God's sincer-ty ; he makes God a liar, Savs the 
Apostle John ; his blood remains upon his ow^n 
head, for he will hot summon confidence to ap- 
ply the remedy »; he dies in unbelief. 

Now let the individualizing advocate declare 
how his scheme, which in i\\b other case made 
God a liar, can here ward off the no less feartul 
charge of sullying the thfone of his eternal jus- 
tice. The condemnation is, what ? not mertly 
the rejection of the oracles of God, not merely 
the adoption "of erroneous principles fundament- 
ally subversive of the grace of God; — it is one 
which may be extended with equal facility to 
millions who devoutly receive the scriptures, and 
who unhesitatingly adopt as their .speculative 
creed and bond of church connexions, all the 
kading, and, if you please, all the minuter views 
of doctrine and order, with all imaginable sound- 
ness : — this ^ays John, this is the condemnation, 
^* r^^ause he believcth not the record that God 
of his Son. And this is the record that God 
i^'iven TO us, eternal life, and this life is in 
.. Son.'' A refusal to believe in Jesus for the 
r:!on tendered to oursfpvers. is/in thr^ Anostle'f- 



-'-u i._. „._. .;? CHRIST.— RI, 



:> vy ..-J i 



account, the making God a liar ; the refusal t 
embrace the hope of etcrnaf life as made o\'er t( 
ourselves in the gospel is the event which coii^ 
.verts the corneilstone of Zion iiito a heavy weight{ 
which shall grind mto powder the rejecters of 
his grace. But how can God condeiTin for refus- 
ing Xo trust in tlie gospel proffer to the sinner, 
how can it be guilt to doubt whether, in Chri^^i 
there can really be pardon and eternal life for me, 
if, in pursuance of the individualizerVplan, it 
shall be found at last that I never was interested 
in any shape in the sacrifice of the Redeemer, 
and so could not have been pardoned eveji if i 
had applied. It is not true, upon the plan we 
combat, that the salvation of God's Son can, by 
possibility of, construction, be extended to any 
whose salvation was not Iroin the first secured, 
legally and formally, by their cepresei^itation in 
the Saviour ; it is not true that any righteousness 
was provided which could be employed to cover 
them ; not true, therefore, that they ever had, in 
any sense, any interest in Christ, any more than 
devils, who, it is not pretended, are capable of 
such representation.— Christ died for all these, 
Christ rose for these, as he had at first specifically 
obeyed for them, as it were by name. But for 
those he obeyed not, he died not, he rose not ; 
d their names being thus left out of the com- 
pact which so pointedly specifies the others, 
either there must be a nc^v representation before 
they could, on the utmost supposition of possi- 
bility, be pardoned ^t all, or their pnrdon and 
v-Sr. ,..,..♦- ^..^..^(^.^ upon apruiciple different ^rr^^x^ 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 22 1 



^•, 



if not subversive of every thing cleemei^^dm^ 
dispensable in the actual plan of grace. This is 
,the result. Let the advocate ol* the doctrine look 
at it. And then lei him say, when this view of 
things is conceded, as it must be, then let him 
say upon what principle of right, a neglect in a 
being for whom no Siiviour and no salvation was 
provided (in his own sense of the words let him 
construe it), — let him say on what principle a 
neglect to apply for a deliverance never provided, 
no not even by possibility ol construction, can be 
construed into a mortal sin ! If this individual .. 
and eternal recognition of an interest in the great 
redemption be formally a part of the construe- 
tion of the plan, and if the Saviour himself, with 
out a new atonement and without renewed obe- 
dience, cannot by possibilitj' extend the charter of 
deliverance, then let him say where the great cri- 
minality of refusing to believe that a name is 
written in that covenant charter, which actually 
never did, and never shall contafti it. Yet thi§, 
upon the principle of individual specification, is 
the totum of the charge ; this the colour of the 
damning crime. So that the unbelief which shall 
condemn the world at last, would turn out to be 
a correct anticipation of the actual state of thnigs ; 
black unbelief would be a believing what then 
was, and always had been true ; and the condem- 
nation of the world would proceed upon a ground 
on which, if there had been any right side, it had 
belonged to them. Is it then the unbeliever 
that makes God a liar ? that is to say, is it he 
who had always believed according to the actu - 

T 2 



"222 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 






al state of things ? Or is it the inventor, is it the 
defender of a christian scheme of doctrine, uhc 
states that there may be proffers of eternal life 
where none can be bestowed ; and that there may 
be guilt in not relying on a Saviour who never 
was in fact, nor in form, nor in law, no not by 
implication, not by possibility, placed in that re- 
lation to the party thus condemned! They too i 
could not believe that he ever stood in such re- 
lation to them, and (upon the supposition) their 
just apprehension is their crowning sin ! 

NO, we again repeat it, ** let God be true and 
every man a liar,'' If the rejection of salvation 
be the damning sin of man ; if a refusal to be- 
live that the proffer is to us, that the Saviour 
stands commissioned and able to deliver us, — if 
this be so emphatically the damning sin, let no 
man presume to sully the purity of God's eternal 
justice, by pretending that any thing short of 
truth in the proffer can induce the infliction of ;i 
penalty for rejection. Whatever be the mystery, 
whatever be the difficulty, tliough principles op- 
posed it more than mountain high, yet if God 
in his righteousness condemns for unbelief, then 
the things disbelieved must be literally true : if 
the aggravation shall consist in making God a 
liar, then he is a liar who dare insinuate a princi- 
ple which would establish the correctness of the 
unbeliever's views. 

It is hardly worth while to be at the trouble 
of contrasting with the foregoing view the bear- 
ings of the true system upon these points, as de- 
'^eloi^d in preceding pages. Everj^ one must ' 



THE BODY or CHRIST— RESUL 1:3. 22;r 

be able to discern that a federal system, which re.- 
cognizes nothing ^vithout hself, but is susceptir 
ble of indefinite augmenTation, will very lairly 
admit of the proffer of all those blessings which 
result from connexion with it to all who are with- 
out, whether they shuU or shall not become, at 
any future period, '* members in particular.'' — st 
The assurance to be believed is tliat there is y^t 
room for tliem ; and not thai they are already ac- 
tually within. The application to be n:\ade by • 
them, is that of perspns who need/dvi interest in 
Christ;, aud not as having possessed such an m- 
terest from the beginning. Now, upon our supr 
position,jhe plan of redemption not only war- 
rants all these proffer^ on God's part, and endea- 
vors on man's part to embrace, them ; but it 
clearly involves in the charges of unbelief and 
contempt of God,, all who refuse or neglect to 
rely upon him for this great salvation. Whether 
men do or do not Ipelieve it, Christ according fo 
his proffer, is abundantly abl^ to rciicve them; 
whether they regard or^ disregard his proffer, 
the sincerity andtruth, and righteousness of God 
stand abundantl}^ vindicated by the very nature 
of the coastitutipn under which he makes the 
tender of his^mercy. While therefore the view 
against which \Aehav.e been contejidrng, involves 
in tlie very preaching of the gospel, when per- 
formed in the manner confessedly required, the 
proclamation of a Hdsehood ; the federal princi- 
pie, as explained and defended throughout this 
essay, not only admits the same thing to be done 
with the most scrupyloy.s regard to frut^y bul' 



224 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

renders this very proclamation a broad foundation 
for the faith and comfort of every sinful man, 
and exhibits in the utmost profusion the re- 
sources and the goodness of Almighty God. — - 
While the former view converts the condemna- 
tion of man for unbelief into a something little 
short of a tyrannous infliction of misery upon 
them for their correct anticipation of the actual 
otate of things ; the latter vindicates the scriptural 
assertion that unbelief regards God as a liar, and 
justifies the utmost severity of condemnation, be- 
cause of such an oucrage against his truth and 
power. 

It would be no very difficult task to extend 
this contrast to a multitude of other points ad- 
mitted and held bv those who so widelv differ 
when agitating this momentous question; and 
we are persuadecTthalln every instance in which 
the contrast could be attempted, the views which 
have been advocated ^in the preceding pages, 
would be found to possess the most decided ad- 
vantage in consistency and simplicity, and in the 
clearest correspondence with the general tenor of 
scripture language. The task however^ would in- 
volve unnecessary trouble. With the contrast 
already submitted, together with the preceding 
exposition of the scheme, we turn over the whole 
burden of more minute research upon the shoul- 
ders of the reader. 

It cannot, however, be amiss to remark, be- 
fore we take entire leave of this interesting sub- 
ject, that awful as are the consequences which we 
are apt t(^ deduce from the assumption of false 






A A i^i Jl> O' 



^^ i <) 1.' ^^ Li L^. X J i. • i w ■ 



principles in discussions like the present, anJ 
hi;:;liiy charged as lias been our own language ir^. 
fit picting some such consequences, yet it;, i^ 
neiiher honest, nor even fair, to impute to the adop- 
ters of any false li3pothesis, as a part of theh^ be 
lief, all the results which may be legitimately de- 
duced from it ; nor is it wise or salutary to spciv: 
of the truth as if it were endangered, or of^tl::^ 
souls of men as if they, were really jeopardized 
to the full extent of all the error loi^ricallv dedu- 
cible from an erroneous first principle. Ne ihinf 
is more certain^han that every error, thcugh it be 
the very smallest, though it be naicomiectvd im- 
mediately with any point of morals orof theolog}\ 
any litde mistake about any small part of God's 
great and general arrangement of liis univ^ '^e 
v/ould, if pur-sued through all its ramifi a 
if pushed to its utmost consequences, — w^oulu in- 
volve every other error, and (if really operatiVLJ 
produce unfversal derangement and destruction 
in all the plans and ways of God. Yet who ever 
antlcipjttd consequences of this description from 
any false principle w^hatevtir. It is only in so far 
as wrong premises actually lead men to the adop- 
tion of wrong conclusions, and these too oi prac- 
tical and not merely speculative bearing, th.- m- 
jury can be justly charged upon error A?id 
ihou.qrh it is undeniable that men who are better 
reasoners than either divines or christians, oftei do 
push out their conclusions tea most ruinous length, 
having built them upon principles w^iich dt-mund 
such conclusions ; yet tc» infer this as a necessary 
consequencCj or to believe th^it it is alwa\ sdone 



226 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

is to libel the forbeanaiceand wisdom and good- 
ness oi Almighty God, wliO has oftvn permite^ 
his [Kople to vvandcr in murh dai'kness and to \ 
adopt many principles radically wrong, wliilc wuh 
happy 11 consistency they hold the opposite truths, 
^ * ' ^ ith much sounder than their 

W(^ ry nuich of the forbear- 

;i'u\ such cases requii 

necuua anu:::^:; uiJ v:v.:.^elieal churches oi ii.. 
present age, and espec i liy of the western countr\ , 
while differing as they do upon the very question 
whlclviit has been attempted to settle in the pre- 
ceding pages. 

•^o far as we have been able to see or hear, all 
the combatant ' cvar.eclicaL Thev 

all build upon in., i u;art:ouonLss of our Lord Je- 
sus Christ as the ir only hoj:>e, they alhadmit the 
helplessness and depravity of man, they all enter- 
tain one view of the agency of the Holy Spirit in 
the work of regeneraiion and sanctification, they 
all bow to the supremacy of God, as the shewer 
of mercy to whom he will shew mercy, an^l the 
hardc ner of whom he will. But they diiftrr amone 
themselves as to the constitution of the plan, in 
pursuance of which all these things have been or 
arc effected. Now nothing is more certain than 
tli.it wrong assumptions lure will logically lead to 
wrong conclusions; but it by no means follows 
that all who make the WTong assumption should 
be such-good lof';iciaus as to ; dopt the wrong ' - " 
elusion, rtor is it fair to charge them with ii. 
igi tpiie th.it principles may be interwoven 



a God's plan which are equally important, and 
even essentia!, to its order aiid efficacy, but it is 
not of equal practical importance, that we should 
be able equally to comprehend thosC several prin- 
ciples. Some of them may be exclusiveh the 
r Je of the divine procedure. As such it may be 
desirable, but caniiot be essential, that we too 
shouk [recognize them. Others arc the foundation 
of oi^r procedure as vrell as of tlie divine. Upon 
them we can act profitably only in so far as WQ 
know^ them, and misconception here must be pro- 
ponionably injurious. . ; 

It is pretty plain that the matter bf the g|-eatest 
controversy at present, viz, the precise organi- 
zation of the federal scheme, is oi the former or- 
der : absolutely indispensable to tlie plan itself, 
but not indispensably necessary to be known by 
ihose who are to reap advantage from the plan. 
Though therefore v/c may shew that such and 
such destructive conscquencesv/ouldfiowtromthe 
actual perversion of that principle ; or that the 
omission of it would be the destruction oi tiic 
whole plan of salvation; yet we should likewise 
remember that the same .d:mger doea not result 
from hun)an miscoi-jcption oj'a maimer which is 
inlirely managed b} the liimd of G(:^d ; and that 
r ]ou^ as men do not s»:-eccilatively connect it 

Inciplcs equally imperii:: 
p...:: ::scu, aiid'at the same time vl-' -- 

ground of ^^leir cvrn procedure, so v\ 

or nuiHiy them, it is imprudent, 
it is wi^'kd t^:^ :vound the- 



228 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 
i " Mngs were actually hastening to ** destruc 



ar.d 



It must be admitted that tl:ie circulation of the 
blood through the lungsis 'an arrangement asin- 

U^pensable to the animal economy as the up- 
.icldingof the system by means of daily susten- 
ance. But surely it is not equally indispensable to 

lie welfare of the animal that it should be acquaint- 
- d with both arrangements. Had any one in 
England l>een so preposterous as to insist that' 
daily food was not requisite to man's wellfare, 
but that the English nation mieht at once save 
themselves from tliC whole expenses of the table ; 
:ind had there been any danger of this conclusion 
being generally adopted; the whole faculty of 
jhysic might have taken vthe alarm. No man 

vould have blamed them for publishing the assu- 
~':mce ihat if this doctrine were once universally 
received, the prosperity of Old England was at 

:n end, lev that in a few weeks she would not 
oontain a dozen people. But wlien Dr. Harvey 
discovered the circulation of the blood, he surelv 
"vas noi at liberty to use the same kind of argu- 

nent against the multitudes who opposed him. 
He m:gb^ hivt: proved indeed the reality of his 

}'stem from an exposition of the evil that would 
necessarily result from the u ant of this arrange- 
ment : he mighl: have shewn that the circula- 
tion of the blood by the lungs was no less indis- 
pensable to the life of man than the formation of 

hyle in the stomach ; but liaci he threatened that 

:^ the doctrine of his adversaries prevailed, all 
''Insrland must exnect to be short! v visited with 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 229 

a universal corruption and destruction of the bo- 
dies of its inhabitants, the greatest adnnirers of 
the judicious and ingenious Doctor would have 
concurred in pronouncing him a fit candidate for' 
Btdlam. 

Sonnething like the same distuiction between 
the necessity of an arrangement, in itself consi- 
dered, and the importance or necessity of its 
being known to them for whose good it is or- 
drtined, should doubtless be made about many 
of the subjects with whicn theologians are con- 
versant. And when this distinction is totally ne- 
glected, we cannot but expect to meet with much 
of that absurdity and many of those groundless 
V^TS expressed in the productions of those who 
hold the truth, which, if hazarded on any other 
dispute, the champions in question being them- 
selves the judges, would endanger the reputation 
01 their adventurous author. 

Happily ^'the author of eternal salvation'* no 
more exacts from us the fulness^ of wisdom than 
of grace, and it is our felicity to know that amid 
all the darkness of our minds as well as amid all the 
depravity of our affections, there is one who 
'^' knows our frame," and who has insured our 
safety, not by the infusion of universal know- 
ledge, but by protecting from the consquences 
of error as well as crime ; by suspending our 
ifety on his knowledge not on ours, and by lead- 
jig us on gradually towards the city of our God 
by ^' paths which we have not known." — Falp be 
it, however, from us to insinuate that any error 
can be absolutely harmless, or any revealed truth 



230 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

unimportant to be known. We are sure tliat iti 
is the interest as well as duty of Gud's people to 
** grow in the knowledge" as well as in the *' grace 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The 
labour of these pages must itself attest that doc- 
trinal mistakes are not unimportant in our view. 
We only obtest against that undue importance 
which illy-assorted zeal often attaches to indivi- 
dual truths,-— an importance much above their 
comparitive influence, — and again.st those fre- 
quent and false alarms which are sounded by con- 
troversial leaders, when they foolishly attach to 
our right apprehensions of a thing, as much, or 
even much more importance, than in the scale of" 
doctrine or the constitution of the plan, belongs 
to the thing itself. 



No- XL 

RESULTS. 

** AS the body is one, and hath many mem- 
bers, and all die members of that one body, being 
many, are one body, so also is Chiist. For by 
one spirit are we all baptized into one body, 
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
bond or free." Thus amazing, yet thus simple, 
iis the constitution of God, ordained for ^he salva- 
tion of "the human kind"! In investigating the 
nature of this prodigious structure, we have fully 
ase^tained that ^' as tlie Father is distinct trom 



TIUL BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 231 

the Son, and the Son from the Holy Spirit, and 
yet Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but one Jeho- 
vah : so, also, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ 
** grow up into him in all thmgs which is the 
head ;'^ form really and truly but one great body, 
vivified and actuated by the Holy Spirit, even as 
the human soul pervades and actuates the mem- 
bers of the bodv ; and derive from this source 
all their importance, all their feeling, all their in- 
terest, nay their very being, considered as living 
members of the living head*'' We infer then, 
and it is our 

THIRD DEDUCTION, 

That ** religion pure and undefiled i>efore God 
and the Father," consists in the occupancy of a 
station in this system ; and that where such are. 
lation does not actually subsist, there is but the 
Otie alternative for the unhappy individual : — he 
is '^ in. the gall of bitterness and in the bond of 
iniquity."' 

Reader !' have you ever pondered the immen- 
sity of the difference between a faint and unde- 
fined and general hope that your character is chris- 
tian, and th^t vivid perception of your relations 
and destinies Vv^hich may be expected to result 
from " the Spirit itself bearing w^itness with your 
spirit that you are a child of Gcd"' ? If you have 
not done it, do it now. So long as we are in- 
attentive to the nature and requisitions of the chris- 
tian faith, nothing can be more easy, and in fact 
lothing is more common, than to flatter our- 
xlves with the belief that all may be w cIl — in-^ 

No. I. Pa^-p "." 



232 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS'. 

deed that all is well. But the greater part of 
those who sit down contentedly with this kind 
of lame and haphazard conclusion, drawn from 
crude and indigested premises, would be very 
loath to draw a conclusion virtually the same, 
from the answer they must feel themselves com- 
peled to give to a demand w^hether indeed the 
Spirit of Christ dwells in them. And yet a con 
elusion, favouarble to our interests, drawn from 
premises short of this, must be just so far un 
founded. A hope that cannot anchor upon the^ 
sense or the faith of our union w^ith the Son, is sa 
far vain as the expectation of the hypocrite. Your 
being of the body of Christ Jesus, your being 
animated by that Spirit of glory and of God, is 
the only possible ground of justification, the onh^ 
appointed mode of sanctification, the only au- 
thorized means of entering into life. Evidently 
then, to hope or to believe that we are really 
christian, without venturing to hope tliat the 
union in question has been already attained by 
us, is to hope in defiance of all scriptural requi 
sitions and in palpable contempt of God'^ eternal 
plan. You are not a christian ; no, my fellow 
sinner, you neither are nor ever can become a 
christian, but upon the assumption of that august 
relationship which, possibly, has entered but very 
sparingly into your calculations, when estimating 
yor prospects for the world to come. 

Let the giddy and the gay think of it ! Let the 
zealous defeuder of *' the orthodox faith'' think 
of it ! Let the proud, and very often illy -hi form 
ed, stickler for purity in the ordinances of God'j 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 233 

worship, think of it ! Let those who boast of their 
own denomi^iations, as Conih boasted of the 
host of Israel, '' all the congregation are saints, 
every one of them" — let those zealots of party, 
not of piety, think of it ! Whatever be your er- 
rors, whatever be your weaknesses, whatever be 
your falls, or, on the contrary, whatever be your 
attainments, and 'however bright your hopes, 
there is but the one and the same way of life, 

common to yourselves and to all other men : 

vital union with our Lord Jesus Christ, by the 
actual participation of that Holy Spirit who is the 
vivifying principle common to the Head and to 
all its members. If you stand thus united, then 
all the errors that enthral your feet, all the back- 
slidings that obscure your hope, all the ills, of 
whatever magnitude and whatever name, that 
threaten to sever you from God the Saviour, 
never shall prevail to work your ruin : the eter- 
nal God will avouch himself your refuge, and 
underneath you shall abide the everlasting arms. 
Obscure and imperlect as are your views of truth, 
the ''teacher come from God" will preserve 
from fatal snares, and will guide you by his conn- 
oil in that '' highway" to life, concerning which 
it is written that 'Vthe way-faring men, though 
fools, shall not err therein." But if not united to 
the Son by the Spirit of his grace, if not of that 
'- body" for which he suffered and ascended, you 
may adopt the purest of churches for your foster- 
mother, you may make the rapidest advances 
in the knowledge of all truth, you may contend 
with zeal and success '' for the fliitli once deU- , 

u 2 



2b4 THE BODY Or CHRIST,— RESULTS. 

vered to the saiats,'' jcu may "speak wiili the 
tongues of men and of angels,'- j'ou jj^ay '' under- 
stand all mysteries and all knowledge,"' you may 
*' bestow all your goods to feed the poor" and 
even yield up your body to be burned, — you 
may be regarded and saluted as a prodigy oi 
light, a prodigy of saintship, a demigod on earth ; 
but you have no solid pretentions to the chris- 
tian name, and it is presumption in you to in- 
dulge the least of christian hopes; 

How dreadful the execution which these con- 
clusions produce, not only among the gidd}', 
fluttering, uninstructed^ unconcerned, who never 
think of pretending to so auirnst a standing as 
that to which our motto points, but would never- 
theless esteem it an outrage to question whether 
they may not be 

'* UnreconcH'd as yet to Heaven and Grace :" 
but especially, how dreadful, (a consideration 
doubly awful!) among the numerous churches 
of our age and land, who make their distinguish- 
ing tenets the test of Christianity, and their offi- 
cial recognition the passport to the skies ! How ' 
vile, how villainous, how monstrously subversive 
of all true religion, of all scriptui^al evidence, is 
this aboundingand abandoned spirit, which stakes 
on subscription to some favourite tenet, or upon 
abstinence from some real or imagined error of 
but secondary moment, all those high and holy 
interests which can flow from nothing, and whichr 
can be designated by nothing, but vital union with 
the Son of God! 






THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 235 

My fellow sinner, whatever be your name, 
\^ialever be } our standing, ponder this great 
truth : grave it on )our memory, wear it in your 
heart's core, that it is not the abundance of your 
acquisitions or your gifts, not the purity of your 
church connexions, not your escape from this or 
the other overttovving error, not the approbation 
of heated and deceived and interested partizans, 
that can render you accepted in the sight of him, 
all w^hose judgments are according to tlie truth. 
How many do you witness out of every churchy 
making shipwreck of the faith ! how many d6 
you witness in multitudes of churcheSj walking 
worthy the vocation wherewith they have been 
called, and evincing by the undoubted ''fruits of 
the Spirit," in abundance and maturity, that verily 
the Spirit of the Son dwells in them ! We w^oufd 
not, by any means, have you hastily conclude 
that all errors are therefore things of small impor- 
tance, and that all diligence in ascertaining, and 
zeal in defending truth, is labour spent in vain« 
A very little reflection, and especially a very little 
experience, will serve to convince you that no 
error can be absolutely blameless, and no trutlv 
absolutely indifferent. But it is one thing fo** 
you to prize God^a wise arrangement, even io 
matters the most minute, and to reverence his 
authoritv, when and wheresoever it is ex- 
pressed ; and it is another and a very different 
thing to attach to these matters an undue impor- 
tance, by giving them a station which they have 
"no right to claim in the appointed method of en* 



23 6 THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 

tering into life. By doing the former^ you ex- 
press a beautiful and becoming reverence for the 
August and Gracious Being from whom is all 
your hope. By giving way to the latter, you en- 
ter upon a species of refined and covert Phari- 
seeism, subversive of that gospel which you pro- 
fess thereby to honour, and almost infallibly des- 
tructive to your hopes. Never, never regard the 
soundness _o£ your vieu's, the order of your wor- 
.ship, the momentum of your zeal, as any thing 
IBce a safe and certain test, or in fact as any test/ 
of your spiritual condition Jn the sight of God. 
These are not union with the_Saviour. Tlie}^ 
may readily exist where such a union is not. — * 
That union may really be, while you appear in 
these respects as the least and moat defenceless 
- among the tribes of Israel, 

Where God has planted the anchor^ of your 
[ . hope, there do you direct your principal concern. 
Labour above all things to secure that interest in 
. the Saviour, W'hich depends not on degrees of 
^ knowledge or of grace. Let union with Christ 
\ Jesus be the test of your acceptance, union with 
Christ Jesus the standard of your hoj^e, union 
with Christ Jesus the alpha and omega of your- 
christian profession. Attain this, and you will 
have attained every thing : neglect it, and you 
have done nothing. Were this great truth re- 
alized by all men who wear the christian name, 
I were they diligent to employ it, not merely as a 
speculative assumption to knock down an adver- 
Liry, but as a means to help themselves forward 
owards the one thbg needful; were.,itjthe sum 



THE BOPY or CHRIST.— REbU^r.^. ^3/ 

©f their desires, the burden of their prayer, — did 
they esteem it ^' all their salvation and all their 
desire'' to become united to the Son of God, many- 
who now figure as the champions of the church, 
the ** defenders of the faith,'' and whose zeal far 
outstrips either their knowledge or discretion, 
would never have emerged from merited obscu- 
rity ; many who are now tossed upon the moun- 
tains of vanity, might have been peaceably re- 
clining by the river of life ; and many who have 
been destroyed by the '' knowledge which puff- 
cth lip,'' might have been humbly triumphing 
in Messiah's grace. 

It cannot, however, be denied that this truth, 
which discovers so clearly the vast foundations 
of a ''sure and certain hope," and sheds such 
lustre on the name of christian, appears, at first 
view, much calculated to damp the 'expectations 
and weaken the efforts of those who feel them- 
selves to be perfectly uncertain whether indeed 
*' the Spirit of Christ dwells in them ;" and yet 
more decidedly to cast a gloom over the minds 
of such as hiGw that they are not of this favour- 
ed body. Why, if such be the indispensable ac- 
quisitions of the christian, if his- attainments m 
his lowest state be an actual participation of the 
Spirit of Christ, — such are the reflections which 
naturally suggest themselves to the '* fearful and 
unbelieving," — what pretentions have I, that 
will justify my attempt to lay liold upon the hope 
of eternal life ? Or what encouragement to make 
an effort to escape ? what ground to indulge one 
Iiope of future happiness ? I cannot ascend into 



238 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

Heaven there to link my destinies with those oi 
God the Saviour, or to unite me to his person by 
the Spirit of his grace. I cannot descend into 
the depths to bring up with me that Spirit from 
the awful place where the wicked make their bed. 
I c-^nnct here on earth command his sacred in- 
fluence, any more than I can *' bind the sweel in^ 
fluenc of Pleiades/' or 

" Bid the main ilcod bate his usual height/*" 
But know, thou arguer against thine own distin- 
guished privileges, kno\v thou neglecter of 
thine own unbounded prospects, that you actu^ 
alii/ have pretentions which will abundantly jus- 
tify your attempts to lay hold upon that hope of 
life, — you have encouragement unshackled by 
any hard terms to aspire after this distinction for 
which you are called to exert yourself: — you are 
a sinner a^jrainst God ; you are at the same time 
a son of Adam. Upon these facts are botto:r:ed 
the whole of that dispensation v/hicli has given 
birth to all those prospects which you deem so 
remote from you ; and it is because you are a 
sinner that you are permitted this hope. You 
have not to mount the heavens, there to accom- 
piish this august alliance ; you have not to dive 
into the secret parts of the earth, there to meet 
with that Spirit of all grace : He w ho proffers 
you his pardon noxv. proffers you in the same 
words that union with himself through which 
alone the pardon can be miaibtcrtci. He who 
would transform you, even in this life, into the 
image of his holiness and rii^hteousncss, can ex- 
pect to do it o::i'ly by minister in 9- Oi that Spi 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 23V 

rit from on high, who is the author and finisher 
ot ever) gracious worK. The difficulties you pro- 
poiCj mereiore, are wholly imaginary : the otjjec- 
tioar^you jurl wire totally unfounded. WhenGod 
the Tcitner gave his Son to the world, he '' pour- 
ed grace into his lips,'' and these gracious lips 
vhave spoken ii, that if any father will not deny 
bread to a son who shall ask it; neither for a 
fish w'ui give hini a serpent, or for an egg a Scor- 
pio. , iiiiichr — much less will your Heavenly Fa- 
thei atny the Holy Spirit -to them that ask him. 
" 'I'nc word, then, is nigh thee, even in thy 
ir»outn and in thy heart:" Confess with thy 
mouih the Lord Jesus ; believe in thine heart the 
sincerity and truth of this his declaration ; apply 
for iht remedy he has so liberally proffered ; put 
it upon his faithfulness to perform for you his 
word: — And when he shall make void the co- 
venant of his promise, by withholding that Spirit 
whom he has proffered to bestow ; when there is 
no iiiore hope ot access by becoming united to 
the Saviour ; when his powers become enfeebled, 
or his kingdom full : then fold thy hands and 
conclude there is no hope ; or else seek some 
other way of access to the F;^.ther than die ap- 
pointed connexion with his Almighty Son, 



I 240 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 



No. XIL 

RESULTS. 

THIS essay has been already extended so verj-^ 
far beyond the bounds Origioalty assigned to itj 
and the evolution of our "results^' has so far ex- 
ceeded the proportion alloted to the discussion 
of first, principles, that the reader will no doubt 
be willing to glide over our 

PO.URTH AND LAST DEDUCTION, 

in as little time, and with as little pains as possi- 
ble. Without, therefore, attempting to discuss 
the points, let it just be hinted that from the very 
nature and extent of church connexions, it must 
appear^ that every individual is bound by his pro- 
fession to desire, and as far as possible to pro- 
mote^ the welRire of all persons and all parties, 
really belonging to ''the body of Christ," how- 
ever remotelv situated from his country, or how- 
evtr widely distinguished from his own denomi- 
nation. — We have already heard it from the 
mouth of Doctor Owen, that tlie different views 
and practices \Yhich gave rise to the various de- 
nominations of his day, were affairs that '^signi- 
fied very little in themselves," however fashion- 
able it might be for the contending parties to ex- • 
alt their points of dliference into considerations 
of the utmost moment.^ In so saying, the Doc- 
tor spoke like a man who understood his Bible, 
and really had the interest, not meerly of his par- 

No. IV. Page 17, 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 241 

ty, but of the Lord's party — the whole church of 
God at heart. We ask nur rccider^ to turn back 
again to the portion of this work refercd to. Let 
them read over the list of denominations ;ur- 
nished by the Doctor's pen. Then let them ask 
themselves, whether among the Evan,^';elical 
churches of the present day, there are really any 
differences more ruinous, or any errors more des- 
^ tructive than those which U^c^y must suppose to 
have infested those churches against whose pcirty 
pirit and selfish devices the Doctor so empluiti- 
:aiiy declares, while he at the same time decides, 
m t^rnis no less emphatical, that really in them- 
selves and in the sight of God those differences 
ind errors were very small matters, however m g-- 
•ntied into things of most serious moment b} ig- 
norant and inflamed and selfish partizans. ?vlr, 
Hearle, the successor of Dr. Tv/isse as modera- 
tor of the Westminster assembly of divines^ hc,d 
a similar language in one of hispam.phlets, Vvrit- 
ien,we believe, during the sitting of that assembly, 
igainst the Independents. These things we mere- 
ly mention, that the reader may not again revert 
to the old and sham.eful course of thinking ad 
ipc.Lingof his own denomination, as if it wire 
jxchisively the church of Jesus Christ; anci so 
vontrive to elude the force of the reflections we 
mean merely to suggest, not to pursue at large. 
Taking it for granted vi^cn as a m^.tter fu'H^ 
estabnshed heretofore, tiiat vvituin the vast •/- 
cumference of t)ie body of our Lord are includ- 
ed many sections and denominations of the earth- 
Iv church, and believing that the candid and jii. 

X 



242 THE L'ODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 



] 



dicioiis portion of our readers ha\'e had evidence 
enough to make them conclude with Doctor 
-Owen, thaf they wlio think otherwise are just 
such characters as the Doctor siad thev were : 
adopting his conclusion that that which " holds 
the head" is the church of Jesus Christ, hmvtver 
defective in doctrine, muhifcrm in disciplii -..or 
various in worship : and pouring unceasinc: and 
.unutterable contempt upon the pharisaic scctc^ri. n 
who makes his creed the standard of pi.riiv m 
discipline, in doctrine, and in worship, and re- 
gards every departure from scriptmv.rordt i ..s 
a crime which must unchurch a people: — \V'e 
go on to remark that it becomes every chrisU .a 
well to consider the exquisite analogy drawn by 
the Apostle between a human body and the 
church of J^esus Christ, in a passage already sub- 
mitted to the reader (1 Cor. xii." 12 — 27): In 
the passnge alluded to, the Apostle lays it down 
as a maxim iiot to be disputed that christians are 
to have >the same kind of feeling for each other 
and for the w^hole church of God, which the va. 
rious members of the animal system evince for 
one another, and for that whole system which 
they together constitute. The human body, he 
teils us, is not a single member, feeling only for 
itself, and acting for itself ; but it consists of a 
great many members, all of them combined into 
the one system : " so also is Christ^ (verses 12 — 
14). If any m^ember could be supposed to re- 
fuse connexion with and interest m the rest, 
ih;^ cofjnexion and interest would not thereby be 
destroyed: Thus too it is in Christ (15 — 19.) 



ST. 



THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 243 

No portion of the body can decide concerning 
any other, that it is a useless member : This also 
holds good in Christ (21). It is the dictate of 
nature that the weaker or disordered parts should 
be trei\ted widithc greatest tenderness and shield- 
ed with the greatest care ; thus should it be in 
Christ (22 -p-2 .7.)- Every member is gratified and 
benefited by the pleabure or distinction confered 
iipon any other portion; and is affected by the 
h^hicy which any other p::rt sustains: so will it 
naturally and necessarily happen to all the mem- 
bers of Christ (26). 

It is not then merely a dutt/ which we owe to 
the church catholic of Christ, and to every por- 
tion, every denomination of which it is compos- 
ed, to wish for ** prosperity to all her palace^"' 
and '' peace'^ to all her sons ; — it is not merely 
a state of mind which reason should dictate ^ which 
reason must approve : but it is a feeling which 
very nature will immediately and vigorously 
prompt, independently of any reasoning about 
the matter; it is a feeling that must subsist in 
every portion of the body, and without which it 
is hard to conceive how any person pretending 
to Christianity can be really connected with the 
body of our Lord. Dn Ovven, in a passage al- 
ready submitted, has said the thing is impossible, 
imless, perhaps, such a lethargic state of feeling 
may be accounted for from the influence of very 
strong temptation. 

Then let the christians of the West consider 
how far they are manifesting their own union with 
.he head, their own membership in the body of 



I 



244 THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 

Christ, when they, as members of particular de- ^ 
nominations, are so otten employed in " biting 
and devonring one another;'^ when they aecount 
it a splendid and a glorious triumph to build up 
a congregation upon the rums of an other belonging 
to a different sect; when they manifest a more 
than Pharisaic zeal ^' to make one proselyte'' 
by even doing more than '^ compass sea and 
land ;" and when, as if they had rendered him, 
just like the Pharisees, seven fold more the child 
of hell than ever, they engage him to villify his 
former church connexions, and applaud his spite- 
fuliiess against all who will not follow his exam- 
ple. This is a kind of trade too common in the 
.West; and by no means confined to one or two 
denominations : though certainly there are many 
in very many denominations, who think and 
speak of it as they should. But if by admitting 
their members to join your congregations w ith- 
out insisting that they should be re-baptized, and 
allovving the'r ministers to fall under your ranks 
without requiring that they should be re- ordain- 
ed, you avow your belief that theirs W'as christian 
baptism and christian ordination, and so the 
churches they belonged to, churches of Jesus .. 
Christ: — why wound your master's honour by | 
blazing abroad the miscarriages of his disciples 
who still are within the separate pale ? Why ac- 
count it so glorious an exploit to break into their 
folds, hke beasts of prey: and scatter and devour 
the little handful, that might have been safely fos- 
tered for the generalfoid ? why hot rather consider 
yourselves as favoured, your own interests as ag- 



THE BODV OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 24^ 

grandized, by every Item of prosperity which any 
section of the church enjoys ? Why not delight 
to aid by your influence all their attempts in eve- 
ry quarter, and to foster by your example that 
brotherly interest and brotherly affection vvhiclt 
the mere fires of dissention in contending legiti- 
mately aiid fairly for all truth, are but too apt to 
wither ? Men indeed may tell you that by put- 
ing to your hand for the prosperity of another 
church, you so far promote all the errors in that 
church, and render yourself, therefore, even still 
more guilty than those who in their ignorance 
embraced the error. But is this a fact ? Has it 
not, already sufficiently appeared that our Lord 
and his Apostles found no difficulty in discrimi- 
nating, and that we too are able to discriminate 
and conduct as they. But .even admitting all 
that is assumed on this point,- — admitting that if 
you promote the increase of a church you con- 
tribute to the influence of the errors which are in 
it, and which cannot be separated from its grow- 
ing interests : — even admitting that all this is true, 
as iu effect it no doubt would be ; what then ? If 
this be a christian church notwithstanding all its 
errors; if those be christian people, though de- 
based and weakened by much ignorance and fol- 
ly : yet — is it not better, taking them as they 
are, is it not better to aid them where we can, in 
making of others christians such as they are, than 
to let those converts remain in their old condi- 
tion and perish with the world ? Is not real Chris- 
tianity, is not vital piety, though in a miserably 
degenerated form, infinitely to be prefered to ti^p 



'WV^ 



246 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

reign of those corruptions which whelm their 
votaries in the second death ? Verily if we can 
only get a human soul without the region of the 
Devil's rule, if from a church degenerate and 
corrupt, we can hope for his transfer to the hea- 
vens of God, then we will sing Hosannah to her 
triumphs, however materially she may^^iffer from 
our own : then we will put to our hand to help 
her forward; we will be fellow workers with our 
master, in lengthening her cords and strengthen- 
ing her stakes ; and though we may thus indeed 
contribute to circulate her errors, together with 
her excellence, though we cannot so divide as 
not to promote her influence exactly as she is, 
yet if that influence is to spring up into eternal 
life, yet if her disciples may be rendered *^the 
sons and daughtcrs^of the Lord Almighty, '^ that 
influencciwe may further with a pure and honest 
conscience, and rejoice with the angels over the 
sinners that are repenting and flocking to her por- 
tals. As an exclusive denomination let her s(Mis 
rejoice, I two am ^* one member," though of a 
dift'erent sect, I will rejoice with them ; as an 
exclusive denomination let her name be honour- 
ed, I too am ** one member,'^ I will feel as if ho- 
noured with hen 

Far be it from us, however, to say that the 
evils connected with the influence of any church, 
ought not to be matters of proportional regret ; 
or that the prosperity of the church with which 
we arc fornially connected, and the increased in- 
fluence of her more sound and extensive views, 
ought nottobe a matter of proportionably greater 



THE BODY OF CHRIST—RESULTS. 24V 

joy. If it be alike the dictate of reason and of 
scri;)ture that we are *'to do good to all men, 
ESPEciA^LLY to those of the household of laith;'^ 
if nature prompts, and scripture commands us, 
to "provide for our own, especiaj-ly for those 
of our own house:'' then, for the very same; 
reason, nature will prompt, and religion will allow, 
that we should be most concerned about the 
prosperity'of the denomination with which pro- 
vidence has most intimately connected ourselves 'r 
and that those whom habit has rendered dearest 
to our hearts, and whose superior attainments 
most recommend them to our judgment, should 
have a decided preference in our efforts and in 
our wishes. 

But there is a wide distinction between this 
decided preference and superior claim; and that 
exclusive interest and only admited claim against 
which we have been obtesting as repugnant to 
every christian principle, and hostile to the in- 
terest of the general church. This distinction, a^ 
christian should bear in mind. He can, at any 
time, if he pleases, draw it for himself. 

Let the churches, too, consider how far the 
marked and remarkable indifference to the pros- 
perity and extension of the Redeemers kingdom 
in other quarters of the world, which so lament- 
ably betrays itself in the christian community, 
bespeaks a union with the living Head. It is 
certainly the shame as well as the bane of the 
west, that while political effusions and articles 
of intelligence are circulated every where by the 
almost innumerable gazettes of the day, it m 



":,nv- 



2-m THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RESULTSy 

found impossible to support for any length of 
time, or to circulate to any desirable extent, 
publications which record the atchievments of 
the saints while toiling in '' the battle of the 
Lord of Hosts against the mighty.'^ This cir- 
cumstance, which at any time would be humil- 
iating and disgraceful, is doubly surprising at 
the present aera, when the movements to be re- 
corded of the church of Christ are. still more 
extensive and still more eventful than any that 
are occuring in the political world. 

We know that it may be and actually h 
plead in excuse for this indifference, that om" 
reading or hearing of these events will not help 
them forward: that the gospel may be diffused 
abroad among the Heathen, that nations may be 
born to the Redeemer in a day, just as soon and 
just as w^ell, when we are minding our own little 
affairs, and lapng out our money *' especially 
fpr them of our own house, ''^ as if we were 
spendhig our time and means in poring over 
records of these distant and often doubtful mat- 
ters: and especially it is plead that these reli- 
gious publications are apt to contain so many 
ill written or useless things, that it is throwing 
away money to buy them; and frequently such 
offensive and disgusting, and even abusive things, 
th it it is provoking to read, and wrong to en- 
courage them. 

Against the truth of the facts thus alledged ris 
apologies we have. not a word to say. But ad- 
mitting that they are true, do they lay a good 
foundation for so huge a superstructure?— Very 



THE BODY OF CHRIST— RESULTS. 249 

true: the work of God can go on among the 
dist'int nations of the world just as well without 
your knowinir vny thing about it as if you were 
receiving reL*^'i^:r intelligence every day. But 
the;} is not Hi "ast as true of ?<U those move- 
ments in the civt izrd world which are afflicting 
and affrighting the nations of the earth? \Vhy 
then, why should it be a fl\ct so glaring, that in- 
telliirence of these aftairs should be courted with 
so much eagern>rss, that almost every man who 
can muster his three dollars v/ill open himself 
a sliiice by which to receive the news ; will of- 
ten subscribe for papers, more than one or two, 
while intelligence that concerns him much 
nearer as an immortal, and which should be a 
thousand fold more interesting to his heart as a 
christian, \cannot be purchased at a much less 
expense.^ Our Lord has decided it as a commoa 
sens€ suggestion, that the heart will always veer 
towards the depository of our treasure. Why 
then, thou christian, if thy treasure be in heaven; 
v/hvj if thv main interest be in Zion's v/elfare; 
why, if her extension be the burden of thy 
prayer; why, if Gods dealings be the theme of 
celebration and the source of joy, — why mani- 
fest so little of the interest which a christian 
should take, and which a lively christian must 
take in the great and glorious working of our 
God, since he has come forth from his place to 
scatter all his enemies, and to establish far and 
wide the foundations of his praise. You cannot, 
you say, help him forward: but then would not 
an indifferent person naturally suppose that you 



WffiSllil^'V- 



250 T KE BQDY OF CHRIST.— RESULTS. 

would manifest more anxiety to see how he is 
going forward, and that you would at least take 
as much pains and be at as much expense to 
know it, and to diffuse the knowledge of it 
amc'ig your friends, as you confessedly undergo 
to he informed about matters of much less im- 
portance. At all events docs it look like that 
lively interest, that thrilling sense, which tlie 
Apostle ascribes to the members of the body^ 
in relation either to the prosperity or sufferings 
6f the whole or of any part ? 

Nor will the objections that these works con- 
tain much that is useless and much that is offen- 
sive, weigh a great deal heavier. Badly as v/e 
'i^Tite ourselves, we will not undertake to become 
the apologists of bad writing; much less will we 
make exctise for provoking and offensive attacks 
in a religious work. But it may still be inquir- 
ed whether there is not a proportion far greater 
which you consider as useless in your expensive 
newspapers? Whether there are not many po- 
litical effusions, many party squibs, many dis- 
gusting and disgraceful puerilities, which you 
cannot but regard with contempt or abhorrcncCj 
but which nevertheless do not weaken your in- 
terest in the articles of intelligence, nor provoke 
you to reject as an unnecessary incumbrance, 
the vehicle of so much vice and folly. Why 
then, if you never either read or regarded any 
thing but the news, why be so little anxious 
about Gods dealings with Zion, as to reason in 
this case as you reason in no other, and contri- 
bute by your negligence to put down everv^ a*"- 



THE BODi U'l CHRIST.— RESULTS. 251 

tempt to*kiridle in the bosoms of the religious 
public^ a dcvotedness more settled to ** the 
great concern." Does it not look as if you 
were forgetting Jerusalem, before your *' right 
riand has forgot its cunning,^" Does it not look 
' '' '^'^v were careless of being bettered by the 
of Gods mercy and kindness to the na- 
I . ."^ Docs it not appear, at least, as if it were a 
very narrow view which will content you with 
sinrjing of God's v/onders of old which he 
•• wrou!?ht in Esrvpt land;'' while vou will nei- 
ther sing nor speak, nor even hear of his still 
greater wonders now wrought in every land ; be- 
cause, akis ! it would be prodigiously expen- 
sive! and some (good souls!) would rather sing 
for generations of the kindness expressed towards 
•he seed of Abraham, and dispute for whole 
noons whether any thing else should be matter 
of tlieir song, than hazard a very small expense 
to furnish tliem with a source of "joy and thanks- 
^pving,' ' on account of all that God is doing now, 

Christiriu, for shame! rouse up thy slumber- 
ing spirit. Hearken and observe the procedure 
of } our master. Mark him going forth '- con- 
cjiif ring and to conquer." And let your future 
conduct vindicate the truth of that divine apho- 
rism, that '' whoso is wise and observeth these 
ihings, even he shaiJ understand the loving 
kindness of the Lord." 

Finally. If yon would vindicate your claim to 
membership in Cnriiit, it- ;< * * our hnv' be 
idle. The *' trees lie 

planting of Jehovah, '' iiut be uoui i>iaaii> uwd 



^:3« 



52 THE BODY OF CHRIST.— RE.-, ci. x 



waters through the instrumentriilty of men. 
You are not therefore at Hbertv to content vour- 
self with enjoying the means to promote your 
own spiritual growth, or that of your household 
and friends. You must labour to promote the 
i^-r ^wth of the body. You mav do this in other 
denominations, as well as in your own. You 
may do it in behalf of distant churches, as wdl 
as those of yoiir own country. You may con- 
tribute your mite, as well as prayers, to do it 
among Heathens as well as Christians. As a 
member of the body, you promote your own 
best interests, in promoting in any shape the in- 
terests of your master. And while you have 
now abundant calls to assist the general church 
in circulating the scriptures among the ignorant 
and destitute; while most of you have calls to 
aid yourown denomination, in furnishing through 
all its branches, a learned and well trained min- 
istry; see that you do not belyc your profession 
or render doubtful your connexions, by asking 
the selfishly prudent and unfeeling question, 
what likelihood is there of z/oz/r being benented, 
or of your children being benefited, by any of 
these attempts? and therefore, what inducements 
7/ou can have to contribute? let not " the eye 
thus say unto the hand, I have no need of thee." 
Let not '' the head thus say unto the feet, I 
hi^ve no need of you." If the church of God be 
gainer in any quarter or in any shape, t/uzt is 
motive enough for you to give. If there be a 
bare hope of furthering the honour of your mas- 
ter, that is reason enough to toil. If you refuse 



THE BODY OF fcllRlST^—RESULTS, 253 

to " gather with him" upon those remote an3 
general considerations, think what hazard you 
run of becoming hable to tlie judgment which 
his Hps have denounced against '^ die scatterer 
abroad.'^ If you refuse to be his lielper, except 
when you can calculate on your own, or your 
party'b immediate gain, n fleet whether He too, 
in pursuing His great interests, may not in jus- 
.tice leave you, in the things of last importanca^ 
to be the helper of yourself! 



ALTHOUGH there has been adduced in the body 
of the foregoing work, such a multitude of declarations 
and facts, as one would think sufficient to set at rest 
forever the questions of the doctrine held in the West- 
minster age, and avowed in the Westminster Confession, 
on the subject of communion ; yet the reader will hard- 
ly be disposed to think it an unprofitable piece of ser- 
vice, should we furnish him with some additional au- 
thorities and quotations on that debated point. There 
now lies before us a very consicJerable mass of evi- 
dence, which goes to decide what really was the refor- 
mation principle on this important article. But we re- 
gret to say that our limits being now restricted to ten or 
a dozen pages, we have no alternative left but the very 
troublesome one, of selecting and copying off a few 
passages from the mass that had been furnished for 
insertion; which must be submitted to the reader al- 
most without comment or illustration. 

We begin with a ^^ treatise on the sacrament/^ writ- 
ten by Mr. Richard Vines, one of the most admired ard 
revered members of the Westminster Assembly.— 
We have already taken occasion to remark,* that in an 
age, when the communion of alT the faithful, however 
distinguished by various names, was common and com- 
monly allowed, we are not to expect that laboured com- 
ment on it, or those direct and frequent assertions of its 
propriety, which are only to be expected on controverted 
points, especially in ages when controversies run high. 
Our object therefore, in the following extracts is to 
shew that the whole of Mr. Vines* scheme and appeals 
^re built upon this principle ; and that it was one which 

* Page 96 



^56 APPENDIX. 

he did not think it needful to defend or iUustrate, be- 
cause denied by hardly any body. The following pas- 
sage, however, furnishes something like an exception 
to the last remark, and because bearing directly on the 
point, shall be first submitted. In his xiith Chapter, 
he treats of the causes which had brought the sacra- 
ment of the supper under an " eclypse,*' as he terms it. 
The second cause noticed by him was as follows : 

"They" (i. e. some separatists before mentioned) 
^^ planted their battery here upon this sacrament, and 
cryed do\vn promiscuous communion with all their 
might, laying a good foundation, 'that only vi^itle 
saints are fit communicants/ which is true as to the 
church's admission ; ^ that real saints only are wortny 
communicants,' which is true too, as to the inward 
gra.ce or benefit. But then, (as always in such cases' 
it is,) the superstructure was hay and stubble; Khat 
saints are only such as are of /Affr making and judging,'' 
and that they that are of their opinion or party, though 
vicious in life and empty of true grace, are saints. — - 
Andthence'^ — let the reader mark it — ^^ ihnice 
come the several ccmmunions and divisions moulded up 
together into severa.i bodies, for and by mterests, pas- 
sions, and worldly ends, which I speak not of all ; for 
some Godly souls might be carried away to enioy this 
sacrament in a communion more pleasing to them, as 
Aaron ivas in the business of the golden calf: and 
others were mightily taken with it, who hardly passing 
for honest men at home in their own churches, were 
presently cannonized for saints." — Treatise on the sa- 
crament^ Pages 106, 167, 

These pretenders then to a love of greater order and 
purity ** cryed down promiscuous communion with all 
their 'might." They nevertheless laid '' a good founda- 
tion/' Mr. Vines says, for they held that a credible pro- 
fession, or in his own language visible saintship, was 
the proper ground of admission to this ordinance ; and 
that upon the principle that actual union with our Lord 
and Saviour is the coinmon and oyiUj ground of legiti- 
mate communion. The reader w411 compare this con- 
' cssionwith the vi^iws submitted in the preceding dis- 



APPEKUiA. 



257 



course, paf^es 52—60. — Rut while tlic separatists who 
"eclipsed" the glories of this ordinance established 
just premises, they Imilt upon them a miserable super- 
fitructurc in maintaining that their own churches were 
the only true churches, and thence crying down " pro- 
miscuous cominunioa" with other denominations 

Such were the views of that We v.minsicr Father. 

Hear him again in continuation of. this subjc^ct. — 
<i When I look upon the standing ministers who should 
dispense the sacrament, I must plead this for them, 
that while it is their intention and practice to make the 
door of this sacrament no wider, no narrower than 
Christ hath made it, they- cannot be condemned. -It tiiay 
be so wide as to let in the uncircumcised to the p'^ss- 
over, and bring Gi^eeks into the temple, as they ^aid of 
Paul. It may be so narrow as to shut out fit and worthy 
communicants for circumstances, for inere ceremoniet>. 
as in former^imes. There is great difference beiween 
Christ's real members and guests at this table, and (as 
I may say) the visible church members and guests. — 
If he be a visible professor of faith unshipwrecked, of 
capacity to discern the Lord's body, of life without 
scandal, he is a guest of the church ; and yetnothapi- 
ly a true member of Christ, but a Jew outwardly in 
letter, a Simon Magus, a Judas, an hypocrite. We arc 
not Domini, but dispensatores ; Lo7'ds c^ the sacrament 
we are not, but steivards we may be ; but the steward 
cannot invite to his master's table v/hom his master 
will not have for his guest; nor shut out any whom 
the master hath invited." Page 168. On anoth^«» 
part of the subject he says "If Ged afford his com- 
munion with a church by his jardinances, and grace and 
Spirit: It would be unnatural and pievish for a child 
to forsake his mother, while his father owns her for 
his wife." Mr. Vines here quotes a Mr. Brightman 
in confirmation of his views, ^^will thexj be ashamed 
f^aii/i he,) to sk'.doiv?i where they see Christ n^t to be 
aahaiJied ? Arc they holier andfiurer than he ?** 

Unless, then, men are prepared to assert that the 
churches of other denominations are no churches ;..^^- 
Uss they are so scandalously ignorant or wickedly *^e^ 






258 APPENDIX. 



verse, as to make their little matters of difference about 
g^overnment, magistracy*, psalmody, Sec. 8cc. which 
have divided the churches into so many sections, — un- 
less they are determined to make their " hye -opinions/' 
as Dr. Owen calls them, the sum of purity and test of 
piety, they must agree with this Westminster Father^ 
or they must not complain to wear the mark which he 
affixed to those who shouted against promiscuous 
communion in his own day, and who he insinuates^ 
maintained a doctrine, which none but Donatistical 
schismatics had advocated before, 

When upon the question of debaring from thf Lord's 
supper, Mr. Vines asserts that there are but two pro- 
per and adequate and immediate objects of debarment. 
L. scandalous and attrocious sins, for >vhicb he quotes 
1 Cor. V. Gal. v, 19, and 1 Cor. vi. 9. 2. Heresies, 
properly so called. His prerequisites to condemnation 
are 1. That the sin be really grievous : " quotidian sins 
of daily incursion," he says ''are not to be knocked 
down with so great a hammer." 2. It must be an open, 
m^ifest sin ; a thing which will not bear question of 
its ^sinfulness. " For a thing" says he, '* may be com- 
monly cried down under the name of an enornaous 
crime, and yet indeed be very doubtful." W^^n there- 
fore ypiji, or a chjurch* njay be fully satisfied of the evdl 
or sinfulness oi a thing, it will not follow that it has a 
right to debar persons who think and practice different- 
ly .; " for there may be names" says he in the in^lanjce ad- 
duced by hipx? " of great learning and Godliness, who 
denyit, i.e. deny ^he sinfulness of the matter disap- 
proved by you. If then the learned and the Godly con- 
scientiously differ in their views of the sinfulness or 
allowablenesa of a thing, the one party may not set up 
itself, as the infallible head of Rome, to judge ai>d con* 
demn the other, or to refuse them fellowship in things 
allowedly lawful. It must be ** manifestly a sin," 
says Mr. Vines, not a question capable of dispute ; a 
thing which the differences of the " learned and Godly 
do not render doubtful," that will warrant your debar- 
ing any man or church, for thinking and practising 
jii/^cvffiMy from yourself. 



APPENDIX, 259 

And yet more pointedly, when treating professedly 
of errors wi.ich may be a ground of debarin'jj, he says, 
that they must not be "such things wherein the king- 
dom of God consists not." i. e. they must not be any 
thing except the allowed fundamentals of religion; 
and what they are we have already settled.* " Such 
discord,'* Mf Vines continues, "need break no music ^ 
we may as soon make all f9:ces alike as all judgment^ ; . 
and we ahould not be so prood as to think all are black- 
mores besides us. For God hath received him, there- 
fore let us receive him^ and let him receive at the 
Lord's table r—Pase 236—243. 

We mi^ght fill an hundred pagas with similar quota- 
tions: but our approach to the end cf the last sheet 
allowed us, reminds us that we hava already gone too . 
far in making extracts from this work. The reader may 
by this Uine see what reallywere the views of a West= 
minster Father, when trea^ting professedly of the ge- 
l^eral theme v and to satisfy him oi) this point : to shew 
that out- own views. are neither novel nor inimical to. 
the standards of Westminster is all that we intend.-—^ 
Hear then a last quotation, '* The church may be cor- 
rupted many ways, in doctrine, ordinances and worship ; 
and this I account the worst, because it is the cQrrup-. 
tion of the best; as the corruption of blood that runs, 
through all the body, the poisoning of spj^ings and ri- 
vers that run through a nation, is worse than a sore, 
finger in the body, or a field of thistjes in the nation.. 
And there are degrees in this corruption, the doctrine 
in some reniote points, hay and. stubble upon the foun- 
dation, the worship in some rituajs pr rites of men's 
invention or custom. How many scripture churches 
do ye find thus corrupted, , and yet no separation ©f, 
Christ from the Jewish church, nor any command to 
the Godly of Corinth, or of Gallatia, or those of Asia, 
in the revelation. I must in such case, avoid the 

CORRUPTION, HOLD THK COMMUNION: HEAR THEM. 
IN MOSJ^S CHAia> AND YET BEWARK OF THEIR LEA- 

TBN."— /^Og-^ 265. 

* Page 86, et seq. 



260 APPENDIX. 

We are obliged to omit other vali; able authorities 
for want of room, and must close this collection of ex- 
tracts with a few frooi Durham, a man of deservedly 
high authority in all tb : Presbyterian churches. We 
Tnust submit them too. without note or comment. 

An intelligei^t and industiious correspondent has fur- 
nished us with a considerable number of extracts from 
lis celebrated \vorkon the Apocalypse, takeji, he says, 
crbutlvi, from the Glasgow edition of 1764. We arc 
3ony that want of room must preclude our use of most 
of them ; the following, however, will be abundantly 
sufficient to showlhe reader what really was Durham's 
sentiment upon the £*ihject. 

Reasoning for the unity of tbe church he says, 
•* There is an unity among all professors in all parts of 
the world, that live in the same time; they all are of 
this one church; and there is one integral catholic 
church, that is made up of them all. For I. there is 
in all the world but one heaven, and kingdom of hea- 
ven, that is the visible church, as^there is one earth or 
world distinct from it, and it cannot be said there aro 
two: there is but oue temple (as there is but one ark) 
that in darkness all are shut up in, and which, when 
liberty comeih, is but that same temple opened, and is 
still one although it be enlarged to receive more. x\nd 
as all professors in anation, become one national church ; 
so all professing nations do becone one catholic church 
by the same grounds proportionally followed ; For now 
they become his not only severally, but conjunctively, 
and these have their national unity, as being parts of 
that whole with a subserviency thereunto. There is- 
in all theworld one woman : when she travaileth, there 
is an unity and conjunction for her deliveiy, as there 
was common hazard ; and so all professors and churches 
did join in prayers, judicatures, &c. for this end, there 
is but one spouse to Christ, the visible church, marriecV 
to him by the same gospel-band every where. For to 
say that Christ had many spouses, would sound mon- 
strously, and not answer the analogy of that oneness 
that is between Christ and his church, as between a- 
, sian and his own wife : there is but one mother bring- 



f^C>jf!^' * 



APPENDIX '26K 

eth forth, and all visible professors, \vho were either 
liable to heathenish, or Anti-christian persecution, in 
any part of the world, they are children of this mother. 
Gal. iv. 27, and seed of this one woman, which show- 
cth she must be one : all the prophets and ministers, 
wherever they serve, they feed this one Avoman, and 
arc appointed for that end, as is clear, verse 6, TRev. 
Chap, xii.) all professing ..christians, who possibly be- 
long to no particular congregation are of this church; 
for they arc not of any particular church and yet cannot 
be without even the visible church, but in that respect 
iiave a mother: this charch is the church that the 
twelve apostles and their successors adorn, verse 1 
•^Rev. xii.) and if that be not, there can be no solid e:> 
position of tlie xi chapter and-of this." (the xii.) 

" Neither hath this been accounted strange dociiiij^ 
in^the church ; for before Christ, this church was one j 
and if after his coming her unity was dissolved,' then she 
were not the same church, or woman, but many 
churches, or women, that one were many : the primi- 
tive times knew no miss ; but the church and these that 
were without the same, who were baptized, were add- 
ed to x)nc church. Acts ii. ult. 1. Cor. xii. 13, &c. 
and these who were rejected were cast out of tli is one 
church, John ii. Upon this ground all the Apostles fed 
"but one church, when they fed Christ's lamb's every 
where. Upon this the general councils are founded : 
and there is nothing rifer and more ordinary tlian 
such phrases, as the unity of the churchy i^c. renting 
of the churchy fiersccuiing of the churchy iD*c, mention*- 
ed amoug the fathers, and later divines, yet nor.e will 
think that any particular church is meant, or that the 
visible church is not intended. Hence the Novatians, 
Donatists* and others of old, and the Anabapiists of 
late, have been by all the orthodox, branded with this 

•The Novatians and Don.-t ,.-. ..: ..„, ..r.. . .^ .:. 

Mr. Diirh-^m's day?, refused omro'mion witii auj other 4eno- 
^^»i' ation ; and it was considered by all -s their dlsti:^{juishui^ 
blemish. See Ndte A. pap^e 97, Boston's sermoii o\\ schlsmj 
and .Milner*s CLurch History, Cent, v, Chap, vi 



1 



262 APPENDIX. 

tliat they rent and separated from the chu^rch, v^hicfir 
certainly can be meant of no particular cong;regation ^ 
and how often is the seanvless coat of our blessed Lord 
spoken of ? Thereb}^ to show how they conceive th^ 
unity of the church visible, which ought not to be rent, 
being by him appointed to be one entire piece; yea 
this form of speech is not abhored by many judicious^ 
men of the congregational way, we. will find also tha 
most solid writer Cobbet, of New-England, assert it, 
and own that, as a principle destructive to rule> Anti- 
\)edo baptism, Chap. Sect. 5, at the close. So doth 
Cotton, Cant. vi. 9. and Robothom appositely maketh 
the garden Chap. vi. 2. to be the Catholic church, and 
the gardens to be particular churches comprehended 
under the same, as parts thereof: though all these and 
the catholic church be not in themselves different par- 
ties, but she existeth in them as the world existeth irv 
particular nations and persoi:is."' 

" We gather that this catholic church is the firs^ 
church, and fountain from which all particular chirrc he s> 
^o flow, and of whose nature they do partake; for she 
is the mother and they are the seed, which doth de- 
monstrate the same ; she is the travailing woman, and. 
they the birth brought forth and exa.ltedj and the y are 
churches as they partake from her, and are of Urat 
same homogeneous nature with her. This first gos- 
'.pel church, ir v/hich the Lord sets "the Apostles, as it 
were travaileth, and begetteth more, and (as the pro- 
phet saith Isai. xlix. 20) when the place of meeting, 
becometh too narrow then is it subdivided, as divers 
branches spring fi'om one root ; aa)d when it encreaseth 
in number or distance, accordingly this springeth still 
the broader, as branches when they extend themselves 
from the root, or shoot forth new branches, yet is the 
root still one; or as a family encreasing must have di- 
verse rooms, yet still is the family one and the mother 
of the rest ; so is K here : So the root is first and bear- 
eth the branchsrs, and not the branches the root, which 
would be inferred if particular churches were first. — • 
Thas one ia.entercd into the catholic chui'ch us the 



he I 

i 



APPENDIX. 263 

mother, when he may be no memberof a particular 
church.^' — Essay on the unity of the church, Chafi. 
xii. of Rev. and Lecture 3. 

Hear him on schism. " Separation from the unity 
s^nd communion of a true church, whether more or 
]iess pure, if it be a true church, is simply and always 
sinful ; because it is a true church," He then quotes 
St. Augustine, '*not a difference in doctrine (di\ersa 
fides), but a withdrawment from communion consti- 
tutes schism." schism, he says, is positive ^^ when it 
not only withdraweth, but setteth up another, wor- 
ship or church, (as the Novatians and Donatists did,) to 
keep communion 07ily with themselves.^^ Again ** when 
separation is from a true church, (though with some de- 
fects) totally, or beyond that wherein she is corrupted, 
that is sinful, aod as Cotton saith. Cant. vi. a condemn- 
ing as no church that which Christ accounteth one ; 
and is too much nicety not to keep communion with 
them with whom he keepeth communion." Once more 
hear him : " It followeth that when God warranteth se- 
paration, it is from a company tnat is no church, and 
must be supposed a Babel ; and therefore there is no 
separation allowed by him from a true church. He 
calleth none of his to separate from such as are his.— 
We 7nay and should keep church fellowship with a 
church that is a true church, though in mauy things 
3ullied and corrupt."— 2- ecrwre I. on Rev. xviii. 

We close these extracts from "authorities," with 
the following short specimen of a right Reverend Arch- 
bishop's sentiments, who lived in the beginning of the 
last century. The letter, it will be seen, not only re- 
cognizes the principle of communion with various 
churches, but very strongly implies that all the pro- 
testant churches of Europe thought with the Arch- 
bishop, an hundred years ago The extract is taken 
from <* THE christian's magazine," Vol. II. No. iii. 
page 360; and is as follows: "God forbid that I 
should be soiron-hearted,as on account of such defect," 
viz, th^ want of Episcopal order, " i% believe that some 



264 APPENDIX. 

of taeiTQ,*/ the foreign protestant churches, ** siiould 
be cut off froiTi our communion ; or with certain insane 
writers anion p; us, to pronounce that they have no true 
and valid sacj^ament ; and so are hardly christians. ''* 

Reader ! you mu^^t weigh for yourself, and appre- 
ciate as you can, these *' traditions of the Fathers " In 
laying them before you our labour terminates. We 
have nothing more to say. 

* Letter to Le Clerk. April, 1719/ 



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